Digital Hazard: Kingdom Come
by Phantom Typewriter
Summary: One year ago, the invasion ended... but now something else is beginning. The digivices have stopped working and the digital world has come under siege. New children must quickly arise to fight a new kind of war... a war against one of their own. Second part of the Digital Hazard series.
1. Into the Dark

Author's Notes: Cue dramatic intro music...

WELCOME, EVERYONE, TO BOOK TWO!

So... obviously there were some delays in getting this out. The double-chapter thing was a part of it, as mentioned at the end of Book One. There was also the whole being hooked on video games, which delayed me for a good while early on... again, thank you Swords and Roses for the kick in the rear, even if it came a little late. It's always good to have reminders. ^_^

Anyway... aside from all that, I also dealt with a bit of writer's block when I started this chapter. Starting and ending stories is always the hardest part for me, and this one was more so because there were about four or five different ways it could have begun. (Mostly character perspectives. Overall plot would've been the same in any case) Honestly, I'm still not entirely thrilled with how it turned out. There's more I wanted to include, but it seemed a little... I dunno, excessive? Like it didn't really fit the dynamic and pacing of this first chapter and would've just been extra info tacked on the side that slowed things down.

Still, I'm definitely going to explore all of that in later chapters, once the pacing evens out a bit. It's a bit rushed here at the start, though I'll just letcha all read and see what I mean for yourselves. There's more to say, but these notes have filled enough space as it is, so I'm gonna end this here and save the rest for later chapters so you can get on with the reading. Enjoy!

**Digital Hazard**

**Book 2: Kingdom Come**

Chapter 1: Into the Dark

**No one just starts giggling and wearing black and signs up to become a villainous monster. How the hell do you think it happens? It happens to people. Just people. They make questionable choices, for what might be very good reasons. They make choice after choice, and none of them is slaughtering roomfuls of saints, or murdering hundreds of baby seals, or rubber-room irrational. But it adds up. And then one day they look around and realize that they're so far over the line that they can't remember where it was.**

One year.

As Hikari stood atop the roof of her school, staring out across the slowly mending city, she could almost imagine that nothing had changed. That Takeru would walk out that door, sit down next to her, and start telling stories of his time during the war. That she could go home and find Taichi busy catching up on his studies; walk into the Hunter base to see Masaharu still coordinating things, waiting for his replacement... or that she could go to the graveyard and find that memorial, still covered in the countless objects of sentiment that had been left behind behind the hundreds and thousands of people who grieved over the loss of their loved ones.

But no. Taichi wasn't home. He was in the headquarters of the Hunters, deeply entrenched in his officer training under the new head of the military branch. The whole of the Hunters had been once again reorganized, transferring Masaharu over to the civilian sector and demoting him. It was a welcome shift, fortunately, as it gave him fewer duties and thus more time to spend with his family.

The memorial had been long since taken down, though that wasn't a surprise given that it was a casket, and it ultimately required a proper burial. There was work being done on a new one, however, to mark the one year anniversary of the war's end coming in only a couple weeks.

"Hikari, it's time to go."

The girl sighed and turned, heading toward the door as she reached out one arm to her digimon partner. Gatomon had been serving as her personal timekeeper lately, what with her getting lost in thought so much. As the anniversary approached, she found herself thinking more and more about the past, wondering about Takeru, and considering everything that the future might hold.

War would come again. She knew it would. It was inevitable with the way things were, even without the foreboding warnings of Devimon's active schemes still running through the back of her mind. The only question was how, when, and where...

Stepping back inside, though, Hikari's mind returned to the present and her life as it was now. Going to class, hanging out with the weirdos, scaring the normals...

The latter two weren't deliberate, they just happened on their own. Most people, even many of those she considered friends, were still intimidated by her due to her past in the Hunters, plus the fact that she had a digimon feline sleeping in her backpack during classes. She'd almost had to transfer schools for that, at the wishes of both the students and teachers. Fortunately, former Director Ishida stepped in to set them straight.

Those that weren't scared, and particularly those who actually knew Gatomon and talked to her along with Hikari, were the weirdos. Miyako Inoue was probably the most extreme example... she was the closest Hikari had to a fan-girl, though she was more a Koushiro fan-girl in truth. She was both smart and obsessed with learning about digimon for a variety of reasons.

In the year that Koushiro had been gone overseas with Mimi and Sora, he'd set up a website and posted dozens of articles about digimon and the digital world. That website had become known as the foremost source of reliable knowledge on digi-world phenomena, to the point where it was actually considered an acceptable reference source for scientific journals, or so Hikari had heard... and Miyako had memorized every article.

_Memorized_. Every. Single. Article.

Yeah, that girl was a little crazy.

The other two notable weirdos were Daisuke Motomiya and Iori Hida. They were far more sane, though certainly not normal. Daisuke had his own personal obsession in studying the war against Myotismon. He had far from memorized it all, of course, since so much of it was still classified and there was so much misinformation floating around with all the truth.

He reminded Hikari of herself, in a way... the way she was before she became Digidestined. Wanting to join the war, to fight alongside the others... granted, there wasn't a war going on now, so the context was a little different, but the attitude was certainly there.

As for Iori, Hikari didn't know much about him. She didn't see a lot of him, and he didn't talk much. He wasn't exactly shy, just... quiet. Almost like Takeru, minus the death glare and cold-blooded vengeance streak.

So... basically, nothing at all like Takeru.

Hikari went through the motions of the day, drifting through her classes in a haze of boredom while Gatomon napped in her backpack. This workload was nothing compared to the information overload she had been run through during her SDZ training days.

Hikari lightly sighed to herself as her final class let out. Everything always goes back to that. Everyone, everything, everywhere, all the time. It always went back to the war.

She was almost as bad as Takeru...

"Hikari!"

Daisuke shouting down the hall after her was enough to distract her from her inner brooding. Normally it wouldn't be... with her mood, today was not a day she wanted to spend any time of humoring him and his war obsession. However, she caught something in his tone that sounded... different. Not his normal enthusiasm... was something wrong?

Glancing back, she noticed him hurrying- no, outright sprinting down the hall as fast as he could. What the heck? When he finally reached her he was breathing so hard he could barely even speak between his gasps for air.

"The heck? Daisuke, what are you so panicked for?"

"Was...! compuhh...! lahhhb...!"

His words were so lost in his harsh gasps that they were barely comprehensible. Hikari waved him silent for a moment, trying to get him to actually stop and catch his breath before he blurted out any more.

"You came from the computer lab? What happened, did all the servers just explode or something?"

He shook his head a few times, still breathing heavy as he reached into his pocket to grab something.

"This... came out... of the screen..."

And then he held out... _something_. It was an odd device, looked nothing like anything she'd seen in any of the computers at the school... and did he just say out of the monitor? That wasn't a piece of a- wait...

Grabbing it, she took a moment to inspect it as Daisuke continued.

"Was doing research... war stuff... then suddenly the computer just... the screen lit up like a rainbow... then this blue light shot out... right into my hands. Turned into _that_."

A beam of light...? Turned into... _this_. Small screen, two buttons... it looked completely different, but somehow she knew... instinctively, with the same instinct that had told her how to first contact her brother...

"...this is a digivice."

It took a moment for Hikari's brain to fully register the realization that had just passed her lips, along with all that it entailed. A new digivice meant a new digidestined... it meant that Daisuke was one, but the specifics weren't as important as the general fact. Digidestined weren't called for nothing. If someone new had just been chosen, there had to be a reason.

She was right. War was coming again. Right now.

Hikari shoved the digivice back into Daisuke's hand and immediately grabbed her own, pushing a button to call her brother.

"Taichi, we have a problem."

No response.

She glanced to her digivice, checking to make sure she'd hit the right button. It was connected... so why wasn't she getting any signal from the other end? Not even static or ambient noise, just... nothing. She quickly canceled the call and brought it back, thinking it might have been an error of some sort.

"Taichi! This is Hikari, respond!"

It wasn't.

Rather than panic over what might have happened to her brother, she switched to contacting the other digidestined, though she soon found that each of them was equally silent in reply. Yamato, Jou, Koushiro, Sora, Mimi... no one. Hell, she even tried _Takeru_. She hadn't seen him in nearly a year, but it was always at the least expected times that he appeared.

Not this time, though. Now, there was only silence.

Hikari looked up Daisuke long enough to read his expression, his uncertainty... he understood the implications of what was happening, at least. Something bad... but he had no idea what the hell to do about it. So it was up to her... okay, only one option.

"Come on!"

Hikari bolted down the hall and toward the exit, with Daisuke following close behind. She was abpout to make a run right across the city to the Hunter HQ, though upon exiting the school she was surprised to find a military vehicle parked outside and a man running toward them.

"Ms. Yagami!"

She took a second to take in everything about his appearance. Hunter. Officer attire. Likely arrived because they detected the digivice coming through. It would have had to passed through- wait... officer? Not standard soldier. He had to come from the base, but that drive would have been too long if they only just now detected something in the network. If he wasn't here for that, it meant something else was happening.

"What's going on?"

"Ma'am, I need you to come with me."

Ambiguous answer, but it still told her something. Trouble, obviously. No time to talk, they had to move...

"Where?"

Even a year later, it took no time to slip back into her military persona, a mask of pure professionalism covering her face. Former head of SDZ, she'd learned from the best...

"Hunter HQ. Emergency call order from Lieutenant Yagami. Koushiro has declared a state of emergency, class V-4."

Her mind processed through each of the terms the man gave in turn. A hunter emergency call order was designed specifically for the digidestined and gave the Hunters overriding authority to pull the children out of anything and call them back to duty. However, it was a universal order as well... which meant that the call was going out to everyone. Jou, Yamato... Sora and Mimi as well, though they were with Koushiro and he was apparently involved in giving the order. Even Takeru... assuming they could even _find_ him.

And for an emergency. V-4... major threat of unknown nature. Something was happening, and right when Daisuke was sent a gift from the digital world... it didn't take a genius to figure out what _that_ meant. Glancing his way, his expression was all it took for her to know he wanted in... he was ready to join this fight.

"Alright, but _he_ comes too."

"Ma'am, the order was strictly for digidestined, I'm not authorized-"

Hikari grabbed Daisuke by the wrist, forcibly raising his hand and lifting his digivice up to the man's face, causing him to reel back for a moment, both in general surprise and because he didn't recognize whatever it was she was holding out to him...

"He has a digivice. He _is_ digidestined. He's coming with us."

The man blinked and his words caught in his throat as he was apparently left speechless for a moment. A digivice? But that didn't... _what_?

It took the man several seconds to get his faculties back together, though once he did he promptly made a sharp gesture with his arm, back toward the vehicle. Figuring out this crap wasn't his responsibility anyway...

"Alright, come on!"

The trio rushed to the vehicle and took off almost as soon as they were in their seats. A quick glance to Daisuke showed he was somewhat unnerved by everything... being so suddenly thrust into the middle of a fight he didn't even understand yet. Even for someone who was eager for it, it was a bit overwhelming.

As for Hikari, she felt like she was home again. The last year had been one long, dull reversion to a boring life she didn't much care for. It wasn't that she disliked peace, just... she hated being idle. All that she had been doing in school felt like it was empty. She wasn't saving lives or changing the world... she wasn't really making a _difference_ anymore. During the war she could, and she did...

...and now she was going to again.

* * *

Miyako threw open the school doors, catching only a glimpse of Hikari before she was climbing into an armored vehicle and speeding off.

"STOP! HIKARI, WAIT!"

"Where are they _going_?"

Iori muttered from behind her, confused as to what was going on. First those beams of light fly out of Miyako's computer and into their hands, turning into these... _things,_ then Hikari runs off and flees in a military vehicle...

Miyako just shook her head, equally unsure and too winded to try talking at this point. Dang it... what the heck was happening around here?

"So _now_ what are we gonna do?"

Miyako paused and took a moment to think. Good question. They still needed to contact someone who might understand this stuff, but they only knew one person, and she had just left...

"Maybe we could call Hikari's parents? They might be able to get in contact with her..."

"She just left in an armored car. Do you think they even know about this yet?"

Oh... dang it. That was a good point. They could always try calling her cell phone, but would she even answer at this point? She'd probably just ignore it if something serious was happening... a random call from her parents or friends wouldn't be given very high priority...

"You're looking for Hikari?"

Miyako spun to face the boy who was suddenly standing there. She vaguely recognized him, but she didn't know from where. Dark hair, blue eyes... actually kinda cute, but he was a little scary, too. His expression was intense. A little like Hikari when she talked about the war days, except... there was something else there. Something... sharper.

"Already found her. We just saw her leave in an armored car."

The boy turned and looked to the side, down the street where the car had sped off to, apparently pondering- wait, how would he know which direction they went if he didn't see it?

"Who're you?"

He turned and looked back, first to Iori from whom the question had come, then to Miyako for a moment before looking back to the younger boy.

"My name's Ken."

...Ken?

"Ken Ichijouji?"

Miyako's reaction was sudden and extreme. Her shock was evident all over her face, as she never would have imagined that she might actually _meet_ this guy. She had heard about him through Hikari, but he wasn't digidestined. He was an outsider and an adviser whose role had ended with the war, so she assumed that he had simply disappeared into obscurity afterward, since little to nothing was said about him publicly.

"You know me?"

Ken's response was as different from Miyako's as it could be. His expression remained totally calm, unfazed by the girl's reaction. He glanced to Iori a moment, apparently curious as to how they knew about him, but before the question could be answered, Iori countered with one of his own.

"Do you know what this is?"

Iori reached out, handing the device to Ken, who proceeded to inspect it from all angles for several seconds. In spite of it all his expression never wavered... never gave even a hint of what he was thinking until he finally spoke.

"This is a digivice."

"Are you sure?"

Ken turned up to Miyako as she spoke, catching a glimpse of the object in her hand, a perfect copy of the one he held save the difference in color.

"Yes... I'm positive. Where did you _get_ these?"

"They came out of my laptop."

"Two beams of light came out of the screen, right into our hands, and turned into these."

Iori elaborated for Miyako, causing Ken to fall into silence for a moment. Handing the digivice back he turned away and began pacing for several seconds, hands folded up in a prayer-like position in front of his mouth, evidently a pose he took when he was deep in thought.

"She's going to the Hunter HQ. There's a new war starting."

"How do you know?"

Miyako asked as Ken pulled out his phone and started tapping the screen rapidly, possibly sending a text or... maybe he was checking something.

"Because it's the only thing that makes- ...sense."

The boy paused mid-sentence, brow furrowing, apparently caught off-guard by something he saw on his phone. He quickly switched it off, though, giving neither of them any chance to see what it might be.

"What are you even _doing_ out here?"

Iori suddenly cut in, apparently slightly paranoid about this boy. Granted, he was Hikari's friend, but it seemed a little odd that he would show up at exactly this time to meet them... too much of a coincidence. Miyako was going to try to defend Ken's presence, but before she could the boy replied with a rather surprising answer.

"I'm linked into the Hunter network. Three disruptions were detected coming through at this school. Not big enough to set off any alarms, which meant the Hunters wouldn't spot it right away, so I went to check it for myself."

"Why didn't you just alert the Hunters? Wouldn't that be dangerous for a normal human?"

"I'm not normal."

Ken answered pointedly, his gaze hardening at Iori for just a moment before softening again slightly.

"But to answer your question... I went to find Hikari first. I spotted you two running out here, shouting her name, so I followed."

"Wait a minute..."

Moyako suddenly cut in, interrupting the apparent face off the two boys were having, more preoccupied with their original concerns and, specifically, something Ken had said a moment before...

"So those blips or whatever... you think those were... o-our... digivices?"

She briefly stuttered through those final words, feeling the sudden weight of the realization hit her. Her... digivice. _Her_ digivice. Her _DIGIVICE_! She... holy crap... this meant she was a _digidestined_! And Iori too!

"Based on what you said, I assume so."

"But... wait... you said there were _three_."

Ken nodded, glancing back to the school doors for a moment.

"Three were detected, but I don't know where the third one is. Hikari already _has_ a digivice..."

"He went with Hikari."

Iori replied suddenly, earning a surprised look from both of the others. From Ken because it was completely unexpected, and from Miyako because she hadn't realized that before. She'd seen the other person, though only vaguely. Her attention had been so squarely on Hikari that she hadn't even noticed him until Iori brought him up. It made sense, too. Armored car, Hikari leaving... going to the Hunters. Why would she bring someone else along if they _didn't_ have a digivice?

"_Who_?"

"I don't know. They were too far ahead. Looked like a boy, though, running out to the car with Hikari."

Ken glanced to Miyako, who nodded in assent. A boy leaving with Hikari... his mind immediately jumped to Takeru, but _that_ boy wasn't around, and there weren't any others that would make sense... so the third one was already off to join the Hunters. Rather, the _first_ one, as far as they would be concerned.

"So... do we follow them?"

Miyako inquired, glancing between the boys for their opinions. Iori showed some uncertainty, though she knew him well enough to understand why... it was quite a ways to the Hunter HQ from the school, and he had no desire to make that run.

Ken, on the other hand, very clearly shook his head. No experienced digidestined around, so he had to take control of the situation.

"No time. They're too far ahead by now. Let's head to my place. It's closer, and we can get in contact with the Hunters from there."

Ken pulled out his phone again and began tapping rapidly as he headed toward the street. Fortunately, both Miyako and Iori moved to follow him. He had been a bit unsure about the latter, given his previous paranoia, but apparently his answers so far had been enough to satisfy that, at least for now.

"I've got a ride coming to pick us up, two blocks down. It'll take us the rest of the way. Come on!"

* * *

The ride in question was Ayaka, Ken's mother. She didn't understand at first what was going on, but when her son sent a rather insistent text asking her to pick him up, she didn't ask questions, and by the time they got back to the apartment they gave all the answers she needed.

As for the apartment itself, it was nothing much to look at... pretty basic by all normal standards, at least until one stepped into the side room that had once been Osamu's bedroom. All his old possessions had long since been cleaned out, to be replaced by a mainframe of network of computers linked together. Looked like nearly a dozen in total, most of which were specialized for different tasks and all wired into a central terminal from where Ken could control everything.

He was plugged into the network, just as he had claimed before, getting all the same readings the Hunters were. He was also connected to their database, so he had access to their records, thus precluding any need to record anything for himself.

And that was just the surface of his system. Miyako couldn't even make sense of some of the stuff she was seeing on the screens, save that it vaguely resembled some of what she had read from Koushiro's website on various theories of data-based matter. It looked like Ken had constructed for himself a fully functioning data-lab in his family's apartment and was using it to operate several private R&D projects all on his own.

"This is what heaven looks like..."

She heard Iori sigh and Ken chuckle, but she didn't respond. She was too caught up looking over everything that Ken was apparently working on. So many projects, so much data... she could sit in here for weeks just studying everything he was doing and she'd be totally content... but her curiosity was interrupted by their more urgent and present state of affairs.

"They've declared a digital emergency."

Miyako's head snapped back toward Ken and she quickly moved to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder at everything he was investigating. He was in the Hunter network, currently looking over general information that was being disseminated among the Hunters. Special emergency order, class V-4... standard emergency order currently awaiting confirmation from Hunter Command.

"What's all this mean?"

Miyako could understand the basics due to her computer knowledge, but the specifics of military protocol were beyond her, so all of this was just letters and numbers without someone to elaborate.

"Standard emergency orders are given by Hunter Command. Special Emergencies are those called by the digidestined."

Ken answered quickly, still working through the files to locate more specific information on the emergency in question.

"What does V-4 stand for?"

"Class and level. Classes are A, D, V, and X. A for analogue world, D for digital. V is an unidentified threat and X is a threat to both world. Levels indicate the level of severity, from one through eight. Four is the highest level a digidestined can declare without approval from Hunter Command. It's also the lowest level that requires sending an immediate emergency call order to assemble all the digidestined."

Miyako was doing her best to absorb all the information, though between what she was seeing and hearing at the same time, it was giving her brain something of an overload. Fortunately, though, Iori seemed quite capable of understanding all the pertinent details, though he was also listening more than watching.

"Aren't the digidestined our best defense? Why can't they declare a level eight emergency?"

"Level _one_. Eight is the lowest threat level... and it's more a matter of protocol than anything. Since the war ended, multiple countries have been assembling their own Hunter armies, and all the Hunters are connected to some level or another. Level three indicates a risk on a national level, with the potential to escalate to a multi-national problem. When an emergency is declared at that level, all Hunter forces around the world have to be immediately alerted, and you can just imagine the political ramifications of that. Not to mention the _paperwork_... they don't want to do that unless they're sure the threat is really that big."

"Any information on _what_ the threat is?"

Ken shook his head at Miyako, who was now half-kneeling behind him, her head practically on top of his shoulder as she tried to keep up with his rapidly skimming the network for information. _Damn_, that boy was a fast reader...

"Not yet. Though there was a video call made between the HQ here and a Hunter team in... Dallas, Texas. United States..."

"Wasn't that one guy in America?"

Iori asked, turning to Miyako, who had to take a moment to consider just what he was asking. That one- OH! That's right!

"Koushiro! Yeah, said on his site they'd be in America for several weeks. Coming back around on their world tour, I think... was supposed to get back here the week of the anniversary thing."

Ken paused, his expression freezing as his mental gears worked for a moment. Then his fingers started moving like lightning, rushing through the maze of the network to find... _yes_. Saved a copy of the video call, as per standard protocol. He loaded it quickly, though he promptly jumped right to a section near the end of it...

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out why they ended the call. It was barely ten minutes, and ended nearly half an hour ago. If Koushiro was advising, they should still be on- wait a second..."

There, found it. He paused as they all listened to a moment to Koushiro laying out the plans. Disconnect, rush to the airport, get on a plane to start back home... they'd reconnect the call once the trio was in flight.

"That explains it... how long do you think that'd take?"

"With the military helping them through? Not long..."

"They're going to reconnect soon, then."

Ken simply nodded, switching some of the settings in his computer to alert him when the next call was made. Miyako said little else, preferring simply to watch and soak in everything she could from watching this boy work. He wasn't Koushiro, but that was almost better for her. Though he was arguably just as smart, she felt like he was more at her level, so it was easier to just watch and learn without the distraction of having to work through her minor case of hero worship...

Iori was even more quiet, having said nothing since he first mentioned Koushiro being in America. He was watching, but he was more observing Ken himself than what he was doing on the computer. The older boy was good, but he was also unnerving... the fact that he had access to so much despite not being a Hunter or digidestined made Iori slightly suspicious, whether or not he was trying to be a help to them.

"How did you manage to get so much access to the Hunter net?"

"I helped create it."

The one good thing about Ken's replies were that they were immediate and automatic. A liar would've had to stop and think through his reply more, which indicated to the boy that he was telling the truth. Iori wasn't a genius by any stretch, but he was clever, and he knew people... his grandfather had made sure to teach him to be wise in his dealings with people, which was why he was often so quiet. He wasn't actually shy at all, but he'd been taught time and time again to listen more and talk less...

_One should always be ready to teach, but one cannot teach what they do not know. Therefore one must always endeavor to learn. There is never a time nor place, neither an action nor an experience where one cannot derive a lesson from it, provided one is open-minded enough to grasp that which the lesson seeks to teach._

That was the maxim of his grandfather, and he had heard it enough times to know it by heart. Iori's grandfather was odd in many ways, most notably his obsession with prune juice, but he was still the wisest person the boy knew, and the one he sought to take after more than any other.

"Do you have a plan?"

Ken paused and slid his chair over from one console to the next, connecting to something that neither of his guests recognized. Certainly not the Hunter network.

"Threat aside, the biggest issue we have right now is the two of you... three if you count the other one. You have digivices but no digimon, and I'm willing to bet that, wherever they are, it's in the digital world. So... first we're going to wait. Hikari's going to HQ and Koushiro should be calling soon. We can coordinate our plans together and then figure out what we need to do..."

* * *

It was fortunate that they had an escort ready as soon as Hikari arrived at the base. The halls were packed with people rushing back and forth. Officers, technical personnel... and a lot more soldiers than she would have expected. Perhaps they had all been recalled to active duty... it would explain why they were all so busy. They had to mobilize, and with no clear idea of the nature of the threat, they didn't know how much – or how _little_ – time they might have to prepare for a potential invasion.

Hikari saluted a few of the officers as she passed. Most recognized her, of course, but only a few stopped to actually acknowledge her. She had a good idea of why... she didn't know them all the ones that stopped, but she at least vaguely recognized _most_ of them. A lot of former SDZ and a few standard Hunters from the last war.

That only served to make this place feel more alien, though. Taichi had mentioned that they had gotten a lot of new people after the war... not a few had retired from their military service after the trauma of the war, and most of those remaining had been transferred to new Hunter bases built across the country. Then they even expanded the Odaiba HQ on top of that... by now the majority of personnel were new, aside from the unusually large number of SDZ officers that Hikari noticed were still around.

She glanced back occasionally to make sure Daisuke was keeping up. Fortunately, the officers around them were being careful to make sure they didn't get separated – even if most of them didn't know _why _the boy was even there to begin with. That was useful. Pretty much the _only_ useful thing they did for Hikari, as she remembered the layout of the building well enough that she could have easily found her way on her own.

Taichi was waiting for them in the command room, as expected. He was working with various technical specialists, collecting information on something or other...

She'd have to get the story on that later. As soon as Taichi looked up and noticed her he rushed to her side and gave her a gigantic hug... usually those were only reserved for when he was worried about her. Not that she minded; she had been worried about him as well. This was the first time she'd failed to contact him with her digivice and she had admittedly feared the worst, at least for a little while.

Then the boy's attention turned to Daisuke.

"Who's this?"

Hikari glanced back, pondering for a moment how best to introduce him. The boy was inside the heart of Hunter operations, so he needed a damn good excuse... oh well. Best to go the direct route.

"Taichi, Daisuke. Daisuke... digivice."

The latter boy blinked in confusion for a second before he realized what she was asking for. Taichi was confused too... and that only increased once the boy pulled out his digivice – a completely new type, no less – and showed it to him.

"What... the hell?"

Like Hikari had before, Taichi quickly grabbed the device for inspection. Hikari could forsee the billion and one questions that were about to appear and she made sure to cut them off before her brother had a chance to ask them.

"I tried to call you on my digivice. It didn't work."

"Gonna guess you tried to call Hikari first, before you sent that officer our way?"

Gatomon added, pulling herself out of the girl's backpack and onto her shoulder where it was easier to see everyone from.

Taichi glanced up, pausing a moment before nodding.

"Tried to call _everyone_ after I got word from Koushiro that something was wrong. He tried the same thing before me. Had to get help from a Hunter base in America just to make contact."

"So _none_ of the digivices are working, then..."

The feline muttered and Hikari reached up to idly scratch the back of her partner's head as she pondered what that meant for the conflict that was apparently approaching.

"Hikari, what-"

"Tai, I don't have answers. Our digivices don't work, so now Daisuke has a new kind. That's all I know, and as far as I'm concerned, that's enough. We can figure out the rest later. Right now, _we_ need to know what's going on. I heard that Koushiro called a V-4 emergency."

Taichi sighed lightly and nodded, handing the device back to Daisuke before leading them toward the main command table. It was showing a large grid, apparently a geographical map. Hikari recognized it as a map of one section of the digital world, although... something was wrong. Most of the data was missing. The topography was present, but that was it. No specific data on anything else except for a single point. It was like...

They were blind. No way to detect anything. Their digivices also didn't work, which meant... they were effectively isolated in the human world. Whatever was happening in the digital world, they had no way of knowing without going there themselves, which was basically suicide given what their enemy was apparently capable of.

"I'll give you the short version. Koushiro is in Dallas, in the US. He got a transmission from the digital world. Scrambled. Took him about ten minutes to filter it out, and when he did he found it was from a group of 'resistance' members led by Pumpkinmon, with the help of Wizardmon. Apparently they've been trying to contact us for weeks."

"Resistance against _what_?"

Gatomon answered immediately, her attention suddenly seized the moment Taichi mentioned her best friend, now fighting a new war that she'd known nothing about... had she known where he was in that very moment, she'd have just as well skipped the conversation and gone straight to rescue him, even knowing how stupid and reckless that might be.

"Something or someone called the Digimon Kaiser. We don't have any details yet... right now we're rushing to save everyone we can and mobilize the Hunters. Koushiro tried to pull the resistance members out of the digital world, but whatever was there was interfering with his digivice. He couldn't get a gate open."

"So what are we doing to help them?"

Gatomon looked like she was borderline feral. Fortunately, Hikari's petting and scratching worked to soothe her slightly. Not that Hikari herself was feeling much better... she knew just how much they all owed Wizardmon. However, she also knew how little they could do right now, so they had to keep cool heads until they could actually act...

"Wizardmon and their team are back on the move for now. Koushiro and the others are all on their way here. They're going to contact us again as soon as they're in the air. Our top three objectives are to reunite the digidestined, find a way to connect to the digital world, and then start mobilizing a counter-attack."

"Any ideas how we're going to do that last one?"

"Right now our best intel is coming from Pumpkinmon and Wizardmon. That's why step two is so important. Get them _here_ where they're safe, find out what they know, then get us _there_. The rest is all standard protocol. Identify weak points, make guerrilla attacks, assist any other resistance... we can't plan better until we know the specifics."

While Taichi and Hikari talked, Daisuke merely listened, feeling a bit behind on this whole digidestined thing. He felt like he was totally out of his element... and worse, even though he may have technically been a digidestined given his possession of a digivice, he clearly didn't carry the respect of one. He was just an outsider, and would probably stay that way until he could somehow prove himself...

"What's this?"

Daisuke cut in during a lull in the conversation, pointing to the marker near the middle of the map.

"Contact point. It's where Wizardmon and his team were when they called Koushiro."

"Any information about the surrounding area?"

Hikari was once more back in control of the conversation, pushing Daisuke to the background. Not that she was trying to... she simply understood this world far better than he did, and she was too focused on their present concerns to think about his feelings at the moment.

"A little, but according to the resistance our intel is useless. Things have changed a lot from what we know, but we can't get any specifics until we have a chance for an extended debriefing."

Hikari nodded to herself. Once again, that meant that getting the resistance into the human world, which was impossible for the moment. Damn it, she hated being powerless like this...

"Taichi, are you the one in charge here?"

Gatomon cut in unexpectedly, causing Hikari to glance around at the realization that... wait a minute. She was right. His superior, whoever it was, wasn't present. What the heck?

Taichi sighed heavily – never a good sign.

"I don't know... my direct superior, Commander Kaiba, went to have a meeting with the Director. It was supposed to be ten minutes, tops."

Hikari's eyes went wide a moment, first in surprise, then confusion.

"And they're still _in there_?"

What the heck? They were in the middle of an emergency, what could be the start of a massive crisis of unknown scale, and they were wasting time like _this_? Taichi simply shook his head lightly, clearly frustrated.

"The Commander doesn't get along well with some people, especially in the civilian branch... I'll tell you more later. Right now we don't have a lot of time to waste talking."

Hikari nodded lightly. Right... Koushiro first. Hopefully they could work out their initial war plan for taking on this so-called Kaiser, as well as figure out what to do with this new digidestined she had found... politics and the rest of that BS could wait until later.

* * *

Miyako and Iori sat at a side console, reviewing some of the records he had saved from back in the war. Most of it was general information that they already knew about the digidestined, particularly about digivices and digimon evolution.

None of that was very secret, but the actual specifics had been kept from the public for various reasons, not the least of which being that the Hunters still didn't understand the science of most of it. People tended to think that now, after the fighting was over, they had everything figured out. In truth, more than half of what they had encountered was still a mystery, including the rifts, the crests, and the connection between the children and their partners.

Still, some video recordings of the actual process of digimon evolution, plus some of the recorded conversations he'd had with some of the children, gave the pair some practical knowledge that would make everything easier to work into once they managed to find their own partners.

"Miyako, Iori!"

Ken called back across the room, drawing them quickly back to his own console, which seemed to indicate something was happening. Link in progress... mobile target? Miyako didn't actually understand what that meant until two faces suddenly popped up on the screen, both of which would be recognized instantly by anyone in the country: Taichi Yagami and Koushiro Izumi.

"Our team is airborne, our connection is secure. How's your end?"

Clearly Koushiro only saw Taichi, else he'd likely have questioned what the rest of them were doing in the call. Ken was intercepting the signal and watching it while he worked on getting himself plugged in.

"Everyone's been contacted. Jou will be arriving tomorrow, after he packs up and ships his whole life back over here. Yamato's moving a bit slow, but he's been stuck watching his sister lately. Not that it really matters since we can't do a damn thing until we can actually reach the digital world..."

"Wait, isn't Yamato an only child?"

Miyako muttered as the two continued to converse, glancing down to Ken who was bent over partially under the desk, apparently messing with wires or... something.

"Two siblings, a brother and a sister. The sister is only a couple months old. His brother, Takeru, is digidestined, and was a major player in the war."

Miyako threw a sideways glance to Iori, who shared her confusion. They each knew the names of the destined children, and there was no 'Takeru' among them... strange that they wouldn't have mentioned his existence publicly, but stranger still that Hikari had never mentioned him either...

Still, she wasn't going to question it now. She needed to pay attention to the others and focus on this whole... _thing_ that was about to happen.

"What about Hikari?"

"She's here with me. She also brought a friend..."

"...a friend? Takeru?"

Taichi moved to the side and Hikari sat down, shifting slightly to the side so that she was covering only half the screen. Meanwhile Ken sat up and returned to his screen, getting back to working his magic inside the network. Neither Miyako nor Iori failed to notice that name be mentioned again, but still... nothing specific was said about him yet.

"Nope, not today. A little introduction is in order here... Koushiro, meet Daisuke Motomiya. Generation two digidestined."

Iori and Miyako, of course, recognized instantly the face of the boy they'd seen talking to Hikari dozens of times in the past. Koushiro was far more surprised, though... doubly so when the boy held up a device that matched the pair with Ken.

"Is... is that a _digivice_?"

"Far as we can tell. If not, we don't know _what_ it is..."

"Oh, damn it..."

Ken muttered, breaking in to the middle of the exchange between Hikari and Koushiro and looking clearly less than pleased.

"We can't connect to the call."

"_What?_ Why?"

Iori asked, though Miyako had a vague idea already... granted, she didn't know all the ins and outs of Ken's work inside the system, but she had a guess...

"The call is on a secured channel. Connecting us to it would set off every red light in the system."

Bingo.

"How? Can't you just... trick the computer or something, like you've been doing?"

"I have sub-processes installed in the network that let me slip by, but they're mostly for monitoring everything. I never installed anything to let me interrupt their calls because I never _needed_ to... I've always tried to stay anonymous. I never _wanted_ anyone to see my face before."

"Wait... but they already know who you are."

"The _digidestined_ know who I am. Most of the Hunters still don't know I'm in the network, though... unless Taichi told them, which I _doubt_ since I haven't had any of their tech guys catch me yet."

Iori was suddenly nervous again. All of this cloak and... well, not _dagger_. More like cloak and... hard drive? Whatever. It bothered him... he preferred being open and up front about everything, especially if they were going to be working with the digidestined and the Hunters. Secrets like this... he never knew them to be helpful in the long run.

Miyako shushed the boys quickly and went back to focusing on the call. Hikari had explained what happened with Daisuke getting his digivice, which was nothing they didn't already know from their own experience, but now they were getting to the important part...

"Alright... we don't know much, but I'm going to go over everything we _do_ know. First, though... Hikari, I need you to show Daisuke how to open a connection to the digital world. I'm going to try to monitor it from here. I need to see something..."

Hikari nodded and moved aside from the computer to what was apparently another terminal off-camera. Her voice became somewhat non-distinct, but Miyako didn't worry too much. They could get a walk-through for the steps to that later, and they inevitably would have to now that they're digidestined and all... the intel mattered more.

"Wait, what the..."

Koushiro went to typing rapidly as Hikari returned to her side of the camera, and within a few seconds Ken was rifling through the system, trying to locate whatever it was Koushiro was monitoring.

"Did he find you?"

Iori muttered and Ken shook his head lightly, skimming through several lines of code that the others couldn't make sense of.

"No... but I think I know what he _did_ find."

A side screen opened, showing a grid-map of the digital world and a blinking marker in the middle of a forested area.

"Daisuke's digivice is connecting to something in the digital world. Signal source unknown... I can track the location, but... I have no idea what's sending it. I don't recognize any of this data."

Koushiro had a unique expression for once... puzzlement. He was rare that he encountered something _completely_ unknown and unexpected. Even those times when he arguably did, he usually had some kind of context by which to analyze it, but here... nothing. New digivice, new enemy, and totally blind...

"Could it be his digimon?"

"It's... possible? However, these readings... they're nothing like any digimon I know, so either it's a completely new kind of digimon, or it's something else entirely."

"Not very reassuring..."

Miyako watched over Ken's shoulder as he reviewed the data, following along with everything that Koushiro and Hikari were talking about. Even if they couldn't join in, they could at least keep up with what was happening.

"What about you?"

She muttered, glancing down to Ken, whose eyes were fixed squarely on the block of data on one side of the screen.

"...I don't have the slightest clue."

Okay, so same on both sides. No real surprise... Koushiro was a genius, after all. If Ken was able to figure out something _he_ couldn't understand, he'd undoubtedly be a lot more famous than he was...

"So what? New digivice, new digimon... does it really matter? We gotta go to the digital world either way, and my digivice is telling me that's where to start. Might as well just go and see."

Daisuke's sudden, somewhat boisterous statement caught everyone in the conversation off-guard, save for Taichi, who was apparently standing in the background behind his sister... laughing? Well... chuckling anyway.

"You sound like _me_ from four years ago..."

And by the look on his face and the fact he was laughing it was clear he didn't altogether take pride in that fact, though Daisuke apparently didn't catch that fact right away.

"_Awesome._"

"It wasn't a compliment..."

The older boy sighed before straightening his posture, military style, and kneeling down beside his sister to get his face back into the camera.

"...he's right, though. The battle's in the digital world so we have to go, one way or another. We might as well do it now... not like our resistance friends have a lot of time to spare. Since his digivice was able to connect to the digital world, can I assume that he can cross over with it?"

"Better, actually... his digivice can apparently filter out the signal interference and open a gate. As long as you're with him, you should be able to go through as well."

Taichi nodded, though Koushiro quickly caught his attention before he got too ahead of himself. A year in military training had helped him cool his head, but he was still a charger at heart...

"Wait. Taichi... by now I'm sure you realize that if the signal is interfering with our digivices then it's possible that you may not be to make much use of it in the digital world. Tracking hostile signals will likely be impossible, and I have no idea _what_ problems it might cause for digimon evolution."

"I know that... but Daisuke doesn't know the digital world. He needs someone with him who does. We don't know what we're facing yet, and until we do it's too dangerous to send a rookie into the digital world alone."

It was clear by Daisuke's shift in posture that he didn't like the idea of being called a rookie, but he didn't say much about it, possibly because he was in the middle of Hunter HQ and didn't want to stir up too much of a scene with all the military types around...

"We should be fine. I'm going, too."

Hikari muttered, earning a happy purr from the friend on her shoulder. No way she was sitting back and watching with her best friend in danger in the other world...

"Hikari-"

"Gatomon is adult level. Agumon is only a child. She's the strongest digimon we have on our side for now – you _know_ I need to go with you."

Silence. Taichi sighed, and then... more silence. Looks like that argument was over before it began. But then, by now they all knew better than to argue with a stubborn Yagami, especially one who had been trained by Takeru...

"Daisuke, you take lead and follow your digivice's signal. I'll follow up behind and guard our flank. Taichi's in charge of this mission, so we do everything he says until we get back to the analogue world. Got it?"

Daisuke nodded and the trio turned back to the computer to see Koushiro doing something on the side.

"Alright... we don't have any intel on that area except what Daisuke is picking up, so you should probably assume the worst until you can see what's happening with your own eyes. I'll work on getting back in contact with the resistance. On that note... Taichi, we got sidetracked and I wasn't able to go over any of our general intel, so you'll need to fill them in on what we know-"

"Already done."

Taichi cut in and Koushiro nodded, continuing without missing a beat.

"We'll also need to go over the network records soon to identify where Daisuke's digivice came through, just in case there are any others out there. If so, we'll need to find where they are now."

Miyako wanted to grab the monitor and shake it wildly while shouting that they were _right! Freaking! THERE!_ But... that wouldn't have done then any good, so she was forced to sit back for now and watch as the others finished their conversation and cut off the call, leaving them in silence for about... two seconds. Then Ken was firing up and moving things forward again.

"Miyako, Iori, I'm setting up twin connections to the digital world from two different terminals. I want you to try to connect, right now."

Both of them were slightly confused, both by the suddenness of his request and the nature of it. Why did he need two separate connections? If they were going to be joining the others, why not just the one? Still, the intensity in his eyes and the speed of his fingers on the keyboard told them not to argue, so they went over to the aforementioned terminals and used their digivices to try to connect. As they did so, two new blips appeared on Ken's map.

"What- wait... what are those?"

"_Those_... are the signals that _your_ digivices are connecting to. I had a hunch that they wouldn't be in the same place as Daisuke's. Looks like I was right."

Suddenly the map and all that work was put aside and Ken pushed his chair over to another terminal. A few strings of code were entered in, then he was back to the first, entering a quick chain of commands.

"What are you doing?"

"Slipping under the network and calling Koushiro from outside the secure sector."

It took Miyako a few seconds to catch up mentally and Iori far longer, though he didn't fret over it much. She was the smart one, after all. He didn't care about knowing all the little details of a plan so long as he fully understood everything that was expected of him. Well... that and knew that he could trust the people he was working with.

After a few seconds a new screen popped up and Koushiro's face came up a moment later. A look of confusion covered his features, though that turned quickly to surprise.

"What... _Ken_? What the heck are you doing? Why are _you_ calling me?"

"To help. I was in the network, managed to intercept your second call with Taichi and hear what's going on. Since the others are all on their way to the digital world, I figured I should call _you_ instead, before you wasted a bunch of time on a pointless search."

Koushiro went silent for a second, clearly confused again. As his mind worked through what Ken might have meant, the boy reached forward to adjust the camera on the computer, moving it back and sideways a bit to widen the angle of the shot so that Koushiro could see the ones standing near him.

"I already tracked down the digivice's signal when it came through the network. There were three pings in the network. These are the other two; classmates if Hikari – Miyako and Iori."

Miyako smiled wide and held up her digivice and Iori quickly followed suit, if only to give confirmation that they were actually who they said they were. Miyako was practically giddy from the fact that they were actually talking to the super-genius who she idolized, even considering everything that was happening. Iori was considerably less energetic, though he was happy to actually be talking to a digidestined face-to-face... he didn't feel quite so deceptive now.

Koushiro was quiet for a few seconds, running through everything in his mind before he replied. Everything was happening so fast... he occasionally needed to just stop and take a look at the entire situation to be certain that he wasn't missing anything important.

"You're sure there was only three?"

"So far. I'll send you a copy of my data so you can double-check. While you were talking to Hikari and the others, I also had these two ping the digital world with their digivices. Got two new signals."

"Show me."

The two took a minute to... well, as far as Miyako could tell, they were trying to synchronize something between their computers. From the fact that the map came up when they finished, she assumed it had something to do with their digi-world connection.

"Hmm... data pattern similar to Daisuke's. Still nothing to show what they _are_, though... they're pretty spread out, too."

"That's why I called you and not Taichi. No point in sending them along if there's nothing for them there."

"True enough. We'll likely- wait... hold on a minute."

"What's up?"

"I need to double-check something... gimme a nano."

Miyako let out a tiny, almost inaudible squeak that Ken could only assume was the sound of a repressed fangirl squee... and that Iori didn't need to assume, because he _knew_ it was. He'd heard Miyako use the term 'nano' a hundred times in that same context. Now he knew where she picked it up from... likely something from his website.

"Huh... one of these signals is fairly close to where the resistance said they would be moving to try to evade the Kaiser."

"Wait, who's the Kaiser?"

Iori cut in, making sure to halt the conversation before Koushiro and Ken ran away on some long, technical dialogue and left the rest of them in the dark.

"Oh, right... you don't know what's going on. Alright, let me fill you in..."

And so he did. There wasn't a lot to go with, but that was somewhat comforting for Iori as it meant there wasn't a thousand minor facts they'd have to memorize before they could act. Simplicity... he liked simplicity. Not because he was dumb or anything, but simply because he knew that the simpler things were, the harder it was for some random event to go wrong and screw over all their plans.

Miyako, on the other hand, was worried by their lack of knowledge. They had no idea who or what the Kaiser was, what he or she had planned, their methods of attack, the extent of their power and influence... they basically knew jack-all except that the Kaiser was dangerous, the digidestined were fighting blind, and those two facts were likely connected. Not the best place to start...

"So... am I assuming you want to rescue this resistance group as soon as possible?"

Ken muttered, hands once more folded in that thinking pose. Koushiro nodded, though he clearly didn't look eager to make the attempt.

"It seems our best option... if we wait too long they'll move out of range and we'll have to meet up with them later. It's definitely not safe, though. There's no backup that can go with them, and sending two rookie digidestined into a war zone blind and without any help is a sure way to get them hurt... or worse."

"Is there any way we can stay in contact?"

Miyako figured that they had to have _some_ way to talk to each other. Three years of war and they hadn't even developed _that_? Not likely...

"With each other, sure. Your digivices can be used for long-term communications, but _our_ digivices aren't working, so they can only link to each other, not to any of us."

Oh. That... would definitely be a problem. Miyako almost let herself slump down slightly in defeat before Ken stood up and headed over to a large, locked chest in the corner.

"Ken? What- Miyako, what's Ken doing? I can't see him."

"He's... getting something. I don't know what."

A minute later the boy returned with what looked like several sets of headphones... heavily modified headphones, plugged into devices that they didn't even remotely recognize.

"Comm systems. I developed these over the past year, using raw data from the digivices."

"You made radios that work like digivices?"

Koushiro asked as Ken moved forward so show the comms more clearly to him over the camera. When the question was asked, though, the second boy laughed and shook his head for a moment.

"Of course not. I'm nowhere _close_ to developing anything _that_ advanced. Engineering living data is still years away, but the spatial principles they use... those I can work with."

There was a pause before realization flashed across Koushiro's face.

"Interdimensional communications. A way to stay in contact with them from the human world without using digivices... clever. But the interference is universal. You'll likely have trouble establishing a good connection."

"You were able to filter out the interference when you talked to the resistance team. If you send me a copy of your data, I might be able to adapt it to these things. Won't be perfect, but it should be enough that we can at least advise them on where to go."

Koushiro pondered for a moment. It wasn't hard to tell what he was thinking based on his expression... still a bad plan. Dangerous, reckless... barely even viable, but... it was possible, and if one of them could locate their partner...

"...are you two up for this?"

Miyako thought for a moment, suddenly unsure. Just talking about it, she had been fine, but now that she was actually being asked to step out there into the fire, to put her life on the line, and with no backup...?

She glanced to Iori. He seemed equally uncertain, but after a moment that hesitancy faded and he turned to face Koushiro at the computer.

"We were given digivices for a reason. We have them, and we know where we need to go. I don't know what the Kaiser is going to do, but I know that the longer we go without fighting back, the stronger he'll become. If we can go now... then let's go now."

Both Koushiro and Ken were quiet for a few seconds. For someone so small and innocent looking, the boy seemed awfully courageous. One might almost chalk that up to ignorance... maybe he just didn't know what he was getting himself into? But he'd heard perfectly fine over the last few minutes of conversation just what he was walking into, and he had lived through the three years of the war...

For Miyako, Iori's confidence was a godsend. It gave her the boost she needed to harden her nerves and be willing to take that first step. Besides... she couldn't well let herself be overshadowed by the _boys_, could she? Daisuke was brazen and reckless, Iori was quiet and confident... if Miyako couldn't match them with her own energy and spunk, she'd just be burden... and she was _NOT_ going to be a burden.

"Alright... I won't be able to help much from here. Ken, I'm putting them in your hands. Your orders are to first find one of your digimon partners and then try to locate the resistance team in the area. If anything goes wrong or trouble appears, withdraw _immediately_. No unnecessary risks, no heroism. Survival is your number one priority. Understood?"

The two nodded in tandem, feeling as though they had suddenly been recruited into a private army... but that was necessary for now. Until they knew how to survive in the digital world they had to take everything as seriously as possible.

Ken and Koushiro spent several minutes exchanging data, with the latter offering advice on how to adapt his own work to Ken's comm devices. Once that was all finished, the call was cut off and Ken turned to the pair to instruct them on the initial plan. The first thing they needed to do upon arriving in the digital world was hide so he could have time to filter out the interference. Then they would be ready to head for the signal from whichever digivice was receiving it.

The full preparation time took nearly half an hour, but even then neither of them felt as though it was long enough. They were about to take their first steps into the digital world, and they were doing it alone. Destiny had just dropped an immense responsibility into their laps, and they were going to have to live up to it without any help from the first generation of digidestined... and against an enemy who had managed to render that same generation incapable of fighting back, no less.

A year before, that generation proved that they were up to the challenge that they had been given, after three long, bloody years of war. Now they were going to find out if the three new arrivals were up to that same task.

Then Ken informed them that his preparations were complete. The gate was ready, and the digital world was waiting...

Time to begin their fight.


	2. Into the Fire

Author's Notes: Okay, first things first... I wish to inform you all in advance of a MAJOR change I'm making to canon so that nobody gets upset at me later... *Takes a deep breath* The new digidestined's clothes aren't going to magically change when going to the digital world. I know, I know...! It completely changes everything! But I felt I had to remove that since it wasn't entirely consistent with the other changes made to this Alternate Universe/History/Whatever. Don't worry, though! They're still gonna get new threads. It's just not gonna happen quite the same way. =)

Now... I tend to reply to most reviews directly rather than in updates anymore, but Swords and Roses asked a very good question that I felt I needed to answer publicly. Yes, I am aware that the digivice was Ken's and not Osamu's in canon. Yes, I am maintaining that fact in this story. Now, as for the matter of whether or not any of the characters are aware of that fact, _who_ would be aware of it, and/or when they might find out... *grins* that's something that you'll just have to wait and see for yourself.

As for the other reviews... I gotta admit, you people are making this really hard for me. Whenever I read what you say I want to reply with hints of what's coming, but I also don't want to spoilerize (...is that even a word?) everything, so I have to hold myself back... especially with YOU, Ace! Ah well... that's life, I suppose. It's what I get for writing a story people get really into.

At any rate, I'm back and writing full speed once again, as is evident by the fact that this chapter got finished *GASP!* only a week after the last one! O_O The best part is, it wasn't rushed either, so the quality hopefully didn't suffer like a few chapters I rushed back in book one. Anyway... the fun's just getting started here, so enjoy, folks!

Chapter 2: Into the Fire

**War is sweet to those who have never fought.**

Daisuke's first deployment to the digital world wasn't at all what he expected. Jumping between dimensions was something he imagined to be much more unsettling... like the first time on a roller coaster or something. Instead, it turned out to be more like... floating. Falling, but without the vertigo, and the 'landing', if one could call it that, was so smooth that he literally didn't even feel it. One moment he was floating around in a space between worlds, the next he was standing on a dirt path in the middle of the woods...

...and then half a second later, he was being grabbed and pulled off the path, behind several large bushes.

"What the-!"

Hikari shushed him before he could utter any expletives, gesturing for him to kneel down and hide from view. They didn't know who or what might be out there working for the Kaiser so they weren't going to take any chances on having an enemy find them first.

"Stay here. I'll go scout..."

Gatomon muttered and rushed up a nearby tree, working her way to the upper branches to get a view of the area while Taichi turned his attention to Daisuke.

"Got a lead on that signal?"

Daisuke grabbed his digivice and made a quick check, turning to reorient himself toward the source of the signal. Looked like... huh.

"Right down that path we were on."

Though most might have found that a convenience, Taichi was clearly not so happy. On a path meant somewhere that enemies might spot them more easily. He hated being out in the open without being able to fight... he always had, and that year of military training only made that sentiment stronger.

He made a motion for them to wait, trying to stay as quiet as possible as they listened and waited... listened for anyone moving nearby, and waited for their feline scout to return. It didn't take her long, and unlike most cats she had no problem getting back down from a tree after she had gone up.

"Nobody here."

Of all the reports Gatomon could have given, that was the most surprising, and possibly the most problematic as well. At least a few enemies being around was expected. No enemies and only friendlies... ideal, though unlikely... but still it was possible. But nothing? No one _at all_?

"How far could you see?"

"About a mile. Maybe a little more..."

Hikari glanced up to Taichi, the worry clear on her face. No one within a whole mile... in the middle of a _forest_? No scurrying bugs, no birds, no... _nothing_? Even if the Kaiser had taken control of this area, it was nearly impossible to clear out all the digimon in an area where there were so many places to hide.

So that left two major questions... first, how did he or she manage to pull that off? Second, and perhaps more importantly... what happened to all the digimon that disappeared? Were they driven out, captured, or...

"Anything _that_ way?"

Taichi motioned down the path in the direction that Daisuke had mentioned earlier and Gatomon nodded lightly.

"The path leads to a cliff wall. Not sure where it goes from there. Maybe around, maybe into a cave. Trees were too thick to see."

Taichi nodded and was about to give an order for deployment when Daisuke suddenly cut him off.

"What about the other way?"

He wasn't trying to cause problems, really... but he didn't want to spend the whole... mission, or whatever this was taking a back seat to the others, either. He wanted to prove that he was competent, that he was thinking ahead... heck, Taichi compared the boy to himself before they left the human world, and Taichi was the leader of his generation, wasn't he? That meant to Daisuke that he could well be a leader someday too, and that wasn't gonna happen if he kept following everyone else around.

Besides, from a more practical perspective, it was a valid question. Paths go two ways. If they were going to be following the path one way, they should at least _try_ to know what might be chasing from the other...

"I don't know... might be a village. I saw... _something_ out there. Big and shiny, maybe a building, but I didn't recognize it."

Fortunately, Taichi seemed to take the interruption well enough, especially since it gave them some info he would have missed otherwise. He tended to have something of a one-track mind, after all...

"Once we find the signal, we head back that way and try to figure out what's going on around here. Agumon, Gatomon, be ready for a pursuit from that direction. Everyone ready?"

Nods all around. Alright... time to go. He pushed his way out through the brush, waiting for the team to move out behind him before giving Daisuke a quick slap on the shoulder.

"You're taking lead. _Run_."

Daisuke didn't need to be told twice... one glance at his digivice and then he was off, straight down the path. Rather convenient for them to have a road made straight to their destination... almost worrying, especially with all the digimon in the area missing.

Suddenly Daisuke stopped as he heard a blip from his digivice.

"What is it?"

Taichi asked as he moved up beside him to take a look at the screen

"It's, uhh... a second signal? Different than the other- wait... it's moving."

"Digimon."

Hikari muttered immediately.

"Hostile."

Gatomon growled and readied her claws, though Taichi immediately signaled her and Agumon to relax.

"Forget them. _Keep moving_."

It took a light push from Taichi, but Daisuke started moving again. This time, though, something was wrong... Taichi noticed he was checking his digivice screen twice as often as before, and his breathing was getting much faster than it should have for the run they had made so far. The boy clearly wasn't out of shape, so something else had to be wrong...

Taichi had a guess, which was then more or less confirmed by the fact that as they neared their destination he started glancing aside, in the general direction of the ping he noticed on his digivice. Ah, so that was it... fear. Yes, that was a feeling he knew well. More than most, in fact.

Taichi was far from fearless... in fact, he was in some ways the most fearful of all the children. He was always at the front lines, and though that was where he preferred to be, he also knew that's where the greatest danger was. He wasn't there because he loved danger, he was there because he was the leader. Lead from the front, and don't ask anyone to do something you're not willing to do first.

That's why his crest was courage. Not for a lack of fear, but for his ability to lead in spite of it...

...and as it so happened, that came in very handy just as they reached the end of the path.

It led to the cliff, just as Gatomon had said, and there was indeed a cave there... good. If the source of the signal was inside, that meant they wouldn't have to go through the trouble of finding a way up to the top.

Unfortunately, that was also when the moving signal caught up with them. Tearing through the brush and uprooting several large bushes in the process, an abnormally large, four legged dinosaur stepped out onto the path and roared. Monochromon... apparently looking for a fight.

"Into the cave!"

Taichi shouted, though they hadn't made two steps before Gatomon shouted back to them from the rear of the group.

"Hikari! The ring!"

What? The ri- wait, what the hell?

Though she hadn't spotted it at first glance, it was fairly easy to catch on a good second look, once Gatomon had mentioned it. A large, silver ring wrapped around the creature's main body, covered in tiny markings that she couldn't make out from this distance... she'd never seen anything like that before. Now she was seeing it for the first time on a distinctly hostile digimon in an area that was otherwise abandoned and, if she had to venture a guess, under the control of the Digimon Kaiser.

...well, it didn't take a genius to figure _this_ out.

"Tai, run! Gatomon, attack the ring!"

Taichi paused a second. He wasn't entirely willing to just run off while his sister was stuck behind them, fighting off that monster, but... damn it! There wasn't anything he could do to fight back, and Agumon wasn't built to take on that kind of digimon. Beside just being in his child form, he was built for power, not speed. Dodging its attacks and targeting the ring was impossible for anyone except Gatomon...

Growling in anger, both at himself at the situation as a whole, he turned and prepared to bolt ahead... before he was suddenly intercepted.

The Monochromon wasn't the only one pursuing them, as was suddenly clear by the enormous flying bug with scythe arms that had moved to block off the cave entrance. They'd been able to detect the other one because it moved so slow, but this thing was damned fast... fast enough that it was able to fly in and block them off in the short time that they were distracted by the beast behind.

No way that was a coincidence. This was a coordinated attack...

Something was unusual, though... wrong enough that it caught Taichi's attention and made him stop for a moment. The creature, Snimon... was supposed to be green. This one wasn't. It was solid gray. The Monochromon was too, but it was _always_ gray, so they hadn't noticed until the second creature appeared.

And a silver ring was wrapped around its waist. Coincidence? Not a chance.

"Off the path!"

Taichi shouted and ducked into the brush with Agumon. Fortunately, Daisuke was keen enough to respond as well, dodging to the opposite side of the path as the bug attempted to take a swipe at each of them. Oddly enough, once they moved back it didn't pursue them. It stayed where it was, ignoring the boys and the fight that Hikari and Gatomon were having with the other creature down the path.

Said fight was going rather poorly for both sides, as it so happened... Gatomon was easily dodging all of the creature's clumsy attacks, but with how it was moving like a freaking rodeo bull she couldn't get on its back long enough to get a good swipe at the ring. Stupid melee claws... what she wouldn't give to turn into Angewomon and just shoot the damn thing off with an arrow.

Oh well. At least she kept it distracted enough that Hikari wasn't in any danger, even if the trees and bushes all around them were.

Back with Taichi, it was fairly clear what the bug was doing, and unfortunately there was no safe way to deal with it. It was blocking the path so they couldn't get to the target, whatever it was...

"Agumon, get ready to fire. Daisuke... ready to do something stupid?"

The boy was clearly shaking now. Giant blade-armed bugs were not what he had prepared himself for, especially without any digimon to protect him. This was a borderline nightmare, and would have been one without these two to help him out. Still... he was standing. He wasn't running, and he wasn't going to. He was digidestined... he had a duty to fulfill.

"Just tell me what to do."

Taichi took a deep breath, glancing back both to check on Hikari and to make sure she was suitably distracted and wouldn't protest this suicidal idea...

"Agumon will start shooting fire breath at that thing. If it doesn't move too much, he might be able to shoot that ring off. If it _does_..."

"Then I can run past it."

Taichi nodded, half to Daisuke and half to himself, trying to reassure his own mind that he wasn't about to get the boy killed...

"Should be too big to fit into the cave."

"It might come after _you_, though..."

"Then you'd better get whatever's in there pretty quick and come back to rescue us..."

Okay, now Daisuke was actually sweating, both from fear and the nervous uncertainty of if he even _could_ rescue them. He'd never had a digimon partner before... would he even be able to command it? Would it be able to evolve, or whatever else it needed? Damn it, he wasn't ready for this! This was...

He gritted his teeth, nodding. This... was war. Didn't matter if he was ready or not. He was here, and at this point they weren't getting out without winning. Gotta move forward.

Taichi noticed his gesture and took a step forward with his partner. Alright... time to go. And in a few seconds, it might well be time to run like hell, too...

"Fire!"

Agumon immediately unleashed a flurry of fireballs, aiming squarely at the ring, though as expected they all missed. Each time the creature dodged sharply to one side, though it was also clearly trying not to move too far from the cave entrance. Fortunately, Agumon wasn't just a stupid grunt... he'd learned a few things about some human sciences during the last few years with Koushiro and then the Hunters, particularly this thing called 'physics'.

Though the laws weren't the same in both worlds, inertia was something that remained fairly consistent, which meant that Agumon could – roughly – predict where the creature was going to end up after dodging and adjust his aim to try to hit the ring with his follow-up shot. This forced the creature to make more and more sharp dives to avoid the shots, ultimately culminating in one that hit one of the thing's side-claws and nearly grazed the ring around its main body.

Its reaction to that was extreme. It was clearly enraged, but more importantly its movements grew harder and sharper as well, causing it to fly off widely to one side to move completely clear of Agumon's range.

Daisuke didn't need help to know that was his cue... he sprinted for the cave with all the strength that his soccer-playing legs could muster, and he was in a full second before the bug could get back and try to take a swipe inside the cave at him.

He heard the insect shriek behind him in rage, though he didn't stop to look back. Instead, he ran faster, heading straight in toward whatever was the source of this damn signal. Please, PLEASE be something that I can use to save Taichi and Hikari...

There was no digimon there, as he might have hoped. Instead, there was... an egg? A red egg on a low circular platform with a metal spike sticking out of it and an odd symbol on the front? What the _hell_? Was this- okay, yup, the digivice was clear. This was the source of the signal.

Bah! No time to question it. Daisuke rushed up to the platform and grabbed the egg, figuring that, if nothing else, he could at least stab the giant bug with the spike to distract it.

When a beam of light exploded out of the hole that the egg had been resting on top of, Daisuke wasn't actually surprised... well, he was, but it was a feeling that was drowned out by a stronger sense of... relief. Granted, he had no idea what was happening, but at least _something_ was happening. Up until this point it had been all him and the other children fighting through this in military fashion. Seriously... if they were supposed to be the 'digidestined' and he had just been chosen, well... come _on_, destiny, throw me a bone here!

And so it did... in the form of a small, blue reptilian creature with a yellow V symbol on its forehead. When it first emerged from the beam of light, Daisuke wasn't sure how to respond. Sure, it was his digimon, but... introducing yourself to your lifetime partner in war – how exactly does one _do_ that?

The digimon solved the problem by jumping out and tackle-grabbing Daisuke's chest, excitedly shouting something the boy couldn't make sense of with his shirt muffling the little guy's voice. When he finally pulled him back far enough to hear him, the digimon was saying something about how he was 'finally there'. Finally?

"...you were waiting for me?"

"Yup! I'm Veemon, what's _your_ name?"

The hyperactive attitude and enormous grin admittedly caught the boy off guard... all this time he'd seen everything through the lens of the war. All the digimon and children he'd met were hardened veterans who had suffered through years of conflict in some form or another, but this guy was... well, apparently he was fresh into the conflict. Even more so than Daisuke, who was at least around for the Odaiba war, even if he hadn't been directly involved in it...

"Ah... Daisuke."

Before Veemon could reply, the two were cut off by the sound of shrieking echoing down the tunnel from... oh _shit!_ The fight!

Fortunately, Veemon was less stunned than Daisuke had been when facing down his first hostile digimon, and as soon as he dropped the digimon to the ground he was ready for a fight.

"Come on!"

Okay, focus, Daisuke... focus! Get back, then fight... fight... how? How were they supposed to fight?

"Can you digivolve?"

He shouted as they ran back toward the entrance, trying to catch a glimpse of anything outside to indicate how the fight was going.

"I can if you use the digimental!"

Okaaaaay...? Digimon, digivice, crest... these things, he knew about. Digimental? Not so much.

"The _what_?"

"The thing in your hand!"

The- oh, right. What the heck _was_ this thing, anyway? Well... apparently it was called a digimental, but what did that even mean? Well, whatever. That brainy kid they were talking to before could probably do something later to figure it out now. More importantly...

"How?"

"Use your courage!"

Daisuke blinked, then glanced forward, looking out the tunnel to notice several fallen trees, apparently sliced right through the trunk by a massive blade of some sort. Er... okay, not the most encouraging sign.

"I don't even know what that _means_!"

Veemon let out what seemed like a sigh, though it was hard to tell with them running as they were and breathing so hard. Oh well... no time to complain about it. They were almost out of the cave.

"You're holding the Digimental of Courage! It's powered by your courage! Use it and I can armor digivolve!"

Powered by- wait... that sounded a lot like the crests. Okay then... Hikari had told him a little about those things, so he understood the basic principles. Hopefully it worked the same way, otherwise he was about to be make for a really nice filler in a deli sandwich.

About to rush out of the cave... charging an enemy with giant scythe-arms that could kill them in an instant... _that_ was courageous, wasn't it? Well, here we go...

Daisuke didn't even look out to see where the enemy was or what the state of the area was from the fight. As soon as he emerged into the light he held up the digimental and... well, he had no idea what he was supposed to do, so he just made it up as he went.

"Let's go! Digimental up!"

When an explosion of light emerged from his hand and transformed Veemon, Daisuke wasn't really surprised. Sure, he had no idea if that would actually _work_, but he was suddenly more distracted as he noticed the state everything was in. Snimon had chopped down a couple dozen trees trying to take down Taichi and Agumon, the former of which appeared to be injured and limping slightly as he ducked under the final attack that the bug sent his way. Another large section of trees was on fire and Hikari was nowhere in sight. Daisuke had no idea _what_ to make of that until a large stream of flame emerged from Monochromon's mouth in yet another futile attempt to bake Gatomon.

Oh... great. The dinosaur can breathe fire, too. That makes it even _better_...

Oh well. At least the flame motifs on his newly-evolved partner's armor suggested that the fire wouldn't be a problem for it. Before that, though... the bug was the bigger issue.

"Attack the bug! Hit the ring!"

Daisuke glanced toward Taichi, unsure if that should actually be their first target, but he was distracted by limping away from the falling and/or burning trees, so he couldn't give any answer. Alright... on my own, then. Time to take charge.

His partner whipped his arms forward, throwing a string of fireballs at the attacker, several of which grazed its sides, and one its wing. Not on target, though... still too damn fast.

"Damn it... Ve- wait... uh... what's your name?"

"Flamedramon!"

Daisuke nodded, feeling kind of silly for having to ask that in the middle of the fight, but it would've been awkward to call him by the wrong name for the whole fight. Besides, not like the bug was actually coming after- oh crap.

Flamedramon dove across the open field in front of the cave, pulling Daisuke out of the way just as the massive claw came down and almost split him clean in two. _Shit_...! This was a bad idea... they couldn't keep fighting like this. Taichi was already hurt, and they weren't doing any real damage. They needed to end this fast... but how? That thing was too darn quick, and it could always fly aw-

Wait... fly away?

As the bug pulled its claw up, Daisuke noticed it didn't move back too far... low altitude. Low enough to jump on?

"Can you jump up and grab him?"

The digimon nodded and the boy grinned. Alright... in the words of another crazy boy – ready to do something stupid?

"Jump up and grab him, then shoot the ring from point-blank so he can't fly away!"

Again Flamedramon nodded, apparently unafraid of the prospect of being diced up. Then again, he was pretty fast for a digimon, at least far as Daisuke could tell... maybe he could make it?

As Flamedramon charged, Snimon did as well. For a moment it appeared as though the plan was going to backfire horribly as Flamedramon jumped toward the bug's head, only to have its blade swipe clean across where his chest was...

...and miss as he caught the blade with his own claws and held on for dear life. Once its arm stopped moving, Flamedramon released and jumped further up its arm to its elbow where he could grapple using only one arm. Then, with the other, he fired a string of small fireballs at the ring, creating an instant crack which soon shattered the whole ring to pieces.

The change was immediate and clear. Snimon flailed for a moment, having apparently lost partial control of its flight as its body shifted from gray to green. Then it turned and immediately started flying away. Smart bug. Now for target two...

"Go after the other one! Hit the ring on the dinosaur!"

Fortunately, the Snimon was moving up faster than it was away, which gave Flamedramon a height advantage. Rather than drop down, he actually pulled an acrobatic swing around to the creature's back and launched off of it, propelling himself over toward the Monochromon – albeit a hundred feet in the air.

Daisuke figured his partner was just crazy – which was fine, given that he was apparently the same. However, it became obvious he wasn't as his body suddenly became engulfed in flame and he literally fired himself downward like a rocket toward the second target. From the angle he was coming at, the beast couldn't even see him, so it had no chance to dodge when he came right down on top of it and smashed the ring the ring to pieces.

The Monochromon's reaction was less violent than Snimon's. For a moment it just collapsed on the ground. After a few seconds it started moving, and once it came to and realized where it was it turned and ran from the-

Oh yeah. From the forest fire. We should probably do something about that...

Daisuke ran over to where Taichi was now standing, leaning against a tree at the edge of Snimon's havoc zone, a safe distance from the blaze.

"Do they have fire trucks in the digital world?"

Taichi shook his head, though he was breathing too heavily to answer verbally right away. No surprise there – the boy looked like a complete mess. Dirty, half-limping and covered in sweat... though that last one wasn't so much of a surprise given how close they were to the fire. Daisuke was starting to feel a little hot, himself.

Daisuke barely made out the sound of something moving in the brush behind Taichi, and for a moment he was ready to take Flamedramon into another fight before he spotted the person emerging from it – Hikari. Oh thank god... Daisuke had been worried that she might have been stuck on the burning side of the woods. Apparently she was just hiding from the fire-breathing monster. At least that's the best Daisuke could figure.

"What are we gonna do about _this_?"

At Daisuke's question, Hikari glanced aside, first to the fire and then to Taichi. The latter shrugged slightly – not quite the reaction Daisuke had expected... Hikari nodded and made a motion for the group to move away, back down the path.

"Just leave it."

...what the _hell?_

"_What_? We're just gonna let the whole forest burn?"

Hikari shook her head lightly, stepping back with Taichi, away from the flames.

"It's just a small forest fire. It'll burn out naturally on its own, just like in our world."

Daisuke's grimace was impossible to hide. Sure, he knew how forest fires worked, but this wasn't a natural fire sparked by a lightning strike or some other crap. This was caused by a fireball spat out by a digimon that was attacking _them_. _They_ were the ones responsible for this!

...of course, Daisuke had to briefly question whether fires causing by crazed monsters _were_ considered natural in the digital world, but that was all technicalities anyway...

Okay then. No help from their end, so... Daisuke would take matters into his own hands.

"Flamedramon!"

Daisuke turned and rushed back toward the fire where the digimon was standing by, on guard, though less for hostile digimon and more for falling branches that might hurt one of the others. He glanced back as his partner approached, apparently unaffected by the flames. Well, that was a good sign...

"Can you do anything about this? Can you... I don't know, control fire or... _something_?"

Flamedramon looked to the blaze for a few seconds, thinking. Finally he looked back and nodded. Daisuke didn't have a chance to ask or say anything about it before he threw himself into the inferno, landing roughly in the center of where the blaze had started. Then he gathered his power for a second and... generated a shield of fire?

Uhh... buddy? We're trying to _stop_ the fire, not make it worse.

Flamedramon didn't move or act for several seconds. Apparently he was still gathering his energy, as evident by the growing plume of fire that encompassed him. Daisuke was ready to call him off when he suddenly noticed _why_ Flamedramon's shield was growing. He wasn't generating it... he was _absorbing_ it. All the fires around him were shrinking, being drawn across the ground and pulled into his personal shield.

This proceeded for a full minute until the rest of the flames had died down nearly to embers. Then he finally launched himself up and out of the forest, back toward the cave, carrying the aura of fire with him. Once he was a sufficient distance above and away from anything that could become kindling, he unleashed a horizontal pillar of fire right into the cliff wall near the cave.

One great thing about rocks: They don't burn.

Once it was done and he was back down on the ground, Flamedramon reverted back to his previous form. As he did, the digimental that had been powering him returned to Daisuke, traveling to the digivice at his si- wait, that wasn't his digivice. That was the wrong side. What?

While Daisuke spent a second trying to figure out what just happened, Veemon ran back toward him and the other two digidestined who were standing nearby, half dumbstruck by what they had just seen. They had each done a lot during the war... fought a lot of fights, taken part in a lot of operations, but that... they didn't know what kind of digimon evolution that was, but whatever it was, it was _impressive_.

"So what did ya think?"

Daisuke glanced up to his little lizard friend, temporarily caught off-guard. For a moment he wasn't sure what to say as his brain was working over three different things at once... when he managed to get his full attention on Veemon, however, his answer was automatic.

"That was freaking _awesome!_"

"...yeah, it really... kinda _was_."

Taichi muttered from behind him, earning a huge grin from the new digidestined. _That's_ was what he was talking about... taking names, kicking ass, and earning the respect of the first Digidestined. Daisuke felt like he was on top of the world... like he could take on a whole army. In fact, he was just about ready to do that when Hikari pulled him back down to normal-people level.

"What were you looking for a second ago?"

What was I- oh, right. That digimental... where did it...?

Daisuke blinked as he pulled his smart phone out of his pocket and scanned the screen for a moment. What the? Why did that just...

"Did the digimental seriously just go into my _cellphone_?"

"What's a digimental?"

Taichi asked, leaving Daisuke at a loss for words for a moment. He didn't actually have much of an answer, save what he had seen when he got and used the thing. Fortunately, Gatomon saved him from looking as clueless as he actually was.

"Explain it later. We need to head back."

"Is something coming?"

Hikari was the first to react, followed immediately by Daisuke, who checked his digivice for any more hostile signals. Hm. Nothing...

"No... we need to go back and check the other end of the path. Remember the big shiny thing I saw that way? It was _silver_."

Silver. Silver rings. The digimon that attacked them... Taichi and Hikari knew immediately that had to be something built by the Kaiser. Daisuke was less certain, but that was only because he didn't know what buildings commonly looked like in the digital world. For all he knew they were _all_ silver, but the others seemed to think there was something to this, so he'd go along with it.

"Alright... Gatomon, _you_ lead this time. Keep an eye ahead. Daisuke, guard from behind. If anything tries to attack our flank, _crush it_."

"Uhhh... you mean destroy the ring, right?"

Daisuke suddenly felt a pang of uncertainty about this. He assumed Taichi wanted to save as many people as possible, human and digimon both, but his tone of voice suggested something more grim...

"If you _can_. We don't know what's ahead, though... we may be walking into a trap, or a base belonging to the Kaiser, or anything equally dangerous. We may not have that luxury."

Daisuke swallowed lightly, looking to his partner, who seemed equally wary of the idea of outright killing another digimon, even for the sake of self-defense. They both knew how real the danger was, though. They'd fight to save everyone they could, but in the worst case scenario... they'd have to be ready to kill.

On the way back, Daisuke kept regularly checking his digivice, making sure that if anyone _did_ come after them he'd know well in advance so they didn't get surprised. The quicker they could hit back, the less likely it would be that they'd have to resort to desperate measures.

Once they got near the end of the path and the giant silver... _thing_ came into view, Taichi pulled most of the group aside to hide in the brush again and sent Gatomon ahead to spy out whatever was out there. They couldn't make it out clearly from their distance, but Daisuke immediately noted that the thing, whatever it was, was... _odd_. It was like a tower, but it was a strange shape. Annoying, too. Damn thing was as shiny as Gatomon mentioned, and it hurt his eyes to look at it with the sun being out...

Daisuke spent the waiting time watching his digivice, ready for any hostiles to show up. He detected a few, all in the direction of the silver thing, but none were moving in their direction. Looks like they were pretty well concealed... but it made Daisuke wonder why there weren't, like... scouts or something. If there was something important out there, shouldn't they be actively looking for hostiles that might threaten it? He wasn't exactly experienced at war, but he had done his research enough to know how the basics of this stuff worked.

Soon enough Gatomon reappeared, hopping out from under several bushes and shaking herself off from the random leaves and other brush that had stuck to her as Hikari spoke.

"What's out there?"

"I was right."

Gatomon muttered and stood up fully.

"There's a village there, or... there _was_. All the digimon have those rings on them, though. Looks like the whole area has been taken over by the Kaiser."

"What kind of digimon are there?"

That was always Taichi's first and biggest question. He had to know what they were taking on before they could form a plan. A lot of enemy digimon didn't necessarily make it dangerous, nor did a few mean it was safe...

"All sorts, including a few that don't even _live_ in villages. I think all the digimon missing from this forest are probably there, guarding that _thing_. Not sure what it is... it's big, though. A giant, silver spire. Hard to see what shape it is – it hurts to look at it."

Taichi nodded soberly, considering their position for a moment. A lot of enemies of varying types... that was more dangerous, and right now they only had the one of them who could fight. Not good odds.

"What's your assessment? What should we do?"

Gatomon sighed lightly.

"Retreat."

She didn't like saying that... never had during all her time with Myotismon. Even afterward, when she had been with the children, she never favored this course of action but... given what they were up against it was the smart option, and she's learned enough from fighting Myotismon to know to avoid stupid heroics. They needed to stay safe... especially Daisuke, their only available fighter.

"Retreat? _Why?_"

"Daisuke..."

Hikari muttered, hoping to cut the boy off before he suggested something stupid. He was just as hotheaded as Taichi in some ways, but lacking the war experience. She could tell right away what his plan was going to be if he made one.

"Sure, there's a lot of enemies out there, but so what? Flamedramon's fast. He can run right by them, smash that tower-"

"And then get trapped and surrounded by a whole army of enemies. He'd get killed out there."

Taichi wasn't putting up with this crap... he'd lived it enough times, being the one to come up with these stupid plans and learning first-hand when they didn't work. This was one such occasion. They might do something like that if they had no other choice, but that wasn't the case. They had the option to be smart and play it safe, and they were going to take it.

"Not if we move fast enough. Besides, the tower's _right there_. It's obviously important, and we can hurt the Kaiser by smashing it right now. We should take this chance."

"We don't even know what it's _for_. For all we know it's useless."

"Why would he build it if it's _useless_?"

"Long-term plans. Like the barriers in Odaiba. One barrier generator isn't worth much. The Hunters had to put up a whole wall of them before they really helped. We need to investigate more-"

"And give the Kaiser more time to get _stronger_, and finish whatever the long-term plan is. If we hit now-"

"Daisuke!"

Gatomon cut in, speaking over the others, even at the risk of the digimon in the village hearing her shout...

"Come with me."

Gatomon ducked back under the brush, followed by Veemon, thus leaving Daisuke to find his path for tall people. With each patch of foliage that he worked through he spotted Veemon ahead of him, waving him toward wherever Gatomon's next path was. After a minute he managed to work his way far enough in to reach a place that Gatomon had found which gave them a good view of the village. Now what was-

Oh... _hell_.

The whole 'army' bit Taichi had said wasn't an exaggeration. There weren't just a few dozen digimon waiting out there by the tower. There was at least a hundred, with about a third of those clustered in groups immediately around the base of the tower, and that was just on this side of the village. It was built on a small hill which, along with the buildings, made the other side hard to see. There could easily be double to triple that number of enemies in total.

Daisuke and Veemon each stood frozen for at least a full minute, just watching the enemies in the distance. There were some scouts moving around within the village itself, but not many... not that they needed any. With the way they were set up, at least one of their army would spot anyone as soon as they moved clear of the woods.

Eventually Daisuke grew nervous and moved away, not walking to risk one of them spotting them under their cover. Veemon moved with him, with Gatomon leading the way back to the others.

When they returned, both Taichi and Hikari noted how shaken Daisuke was, both figuratively and literally. His hands were actually shaking slightly... again, the fear, and just from whatever Gatomon showed him? If that was enough to scare him, Taichi was _really_ damn sure he didn't want to try taking it on _now_.

"Retreat?"

He muttered and Daisuke merely nodded. Alright then... back to the human world, then. They all quickly stood and moved away from the village, with Daisuke regularly double-checking his digivice for signs of pursuit right up until they reached the terminal and gate-jumped back to the human world.

* * *

Not the best note to end on, but Taichi wasn't upset. They'd managed to complete their objective, at least. Daisuke had his partner, plus they now had a bit of info to pass on to Koushiro and the others once they all got together. The next step was locating the resistance forces and getting them to safety, plus tracking down any other new children that might have received digivices along with Daisuke.

...needless to say, he was rather surprised when he managed to get back in contact with Koushiro and he heard the news.

"I spoke to Ken after you left. He's already found the other gen-two children... and they're in the digital world now."

"...what?"

* * *

A/N: As a side note, the choice to have the digimental be stored in a smart phone was a matter of practicality. Since everything from the original series has been upgraded into modern-tech terms for this fic, things like the original D-Terminals seemed _really_ out of date. Having checked a wiki for some info on them and what they could do (beyond storing the digimentals), smart phones seemed like the natural upgrade. If anyone has any differing opinions, feel free to offer them. I'm not against going back and editing old chapters to make little changes if I feel it helps the story (except for the cases where it'd require me to change like... every previous chapter, as in the case of Masaharu's name in the first book...)


	3. Take Flight

A/N: Just to let everyone know... while updates are going to be far more frequent than they used to be, they may slow down slightly from the last couple chapters. Lately I've picked up a few side-projects that I'm working on writing in addition to this fic. They aren't fanfics themselves, though, so you won't find anything up on my site profile. Two of them are things I'm helping friends with, and the third is the outline of an original story I'm probably going to start writing after this story is done. (Note: _Story_, not book. Don't worry. I won't be taking a hiatus after Book 2)

While this may be a concern to some less patient people, there's no need to worry. Though some of my writing time will be taken up by other stuff, I'm still getting well over triple the writing time in as I used to. I used to write in massive swaths, putting out up to 8k-10k words at a time, then getting burned out and not writing for a week or more. Now I'm doing much less per sitting, but I'm writing every single weekday. This leaves me with an overall net increase in story production, so updates will still be much more frequent than they used to be.

More canon changes starting in this chapter, mostly regarding the locations of a few of the digimentals... which of course will make things more challenging for our up and coming heroes. Nobody gets to play easy mode in my stories... =)

(And a sidenote to Guest since I can't reply with a PM: It was the reflected sunlight that made the spire hard to look at, not any weird powers. Sorry if that wasn't initially clear.)

SURPRISE EXTRA NOTE: Okay, so... apparently one of my more dedicated readers/reviewers has taken it upon themselves to create a forum for readers to get on and discuss all the myriad theories that are floating around. Linky here:

(EDIT: Okay, apparently ffnet doesn't like me posting website links in the actual story, so I had to move it to my profile. Just check my profile page and it'll be at the very top.)

I'll also be posting a reminder link right at the start of every chapter from here on out so that people don't have to hunt for it if they lose it. Special Thanks to Swords and Roses for your dedication and general awesomeness. ^_^

Chapter 3: Take Flight

**It is in the nature of the dramatic mind to assume that the final challenge of a hero is their greatest and, by extension, their most difficult. In truth, it is the opposite. The end of the journey is easy. Climbing the world's tallest mountain is not so great a feat once every other mountain has already been scaled. It is always that first step that is the most challenging.**

From the moment Miyako and Iori arrived in the digital world things were already going wrong. It was bad enough taking the risk of the two of them traveling alone with only a pair of radios to keep them in contact with Ken. The fact that he wasn't digidestined and had never been to the digital world personally made it worse... but the thing which topped it off was where they arrived.

Their first task was to find a place to hide until Ken could filter out the static and establish a clear link with them... but that was rather hard to do in the middle of an open field.

"Ken, can you hear me? _Ken!_"

Miyako tried calling immediately, but all she got was static, noise, and a few sounds that almost resembled speech if they could have made out more than two syllables... she'd hoped that the initial adjustments Ken made before they departure would have been able to clear the signal at least a little, but no go. They'd have to find their own way at the start...

Iori checked his digivice. Nothing...

"Is your digivice showing anything?"

Miyako grabbed her device and moved, turning herself around a few times to get a sense of how it worked. It turned with her... okay, so that would mean the signal was coming from...

The girl stopped moving and pointed toward what looked to be a forest in the distance, and who knows what else beyond it...

"The signal's that way."

Iori nodded to himself. Her signal, then... which meant her digimon as well, most likely. That meant he'd have to wait to find his own, but more importantly it meant that if they found themselves in a crisis and only one of them could escape, it had to be her. Better that _he_ need rescuing, since she was the one who'd actually be capable of pulling off said rescue.

Of course, he never said that aloud. If Miyako heard any of that come from his mouth she'd definitely protest, but... facts were facts. He hated to be grim, but they were alone at the front lines of a war they didn't understand yet. They had to be ready for the worst.

"Maybe we can hide in the forest until Ken gets these working."

Miyako nodded and rushed ahead as Iori followed up behind her. As expected, her eyes were set squarely ahead at her target – the source of the signal. He'd known her for a few years now, so he knew how her brain worked. A one-track mind was common for her once she got set on a task. Made her good at studying and working on computers and stuff, but... sometimes she needed help keeping track of everything else.

They were oddly fortunate... during their sprint across the field they didn't get spotted by any enemies. None they could see, at least... then again, they also didn't encounter _any_ digimon on the way, which seemed a little odd. Maybe this was normal for this area? Hard to say since they'd never been to the digital world.

As soon as they got far enough into the brush to find cover, they ducked down by some trees so that Miyako could try contacting Ken again. There was still a lot of static, but they could start to make his voice out a little... not enough to understand what he was saying, but it was getting better. That was a good sign.

"Ken, if you can hear me, we're hiding a forest. We're heading toward the signal."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Iori stopped the girl before she could get up and moving again. Honestly, he was content to just sit and wait for a few minutes and let Ken work things out on his end. Without knowing what they were walking into, it seemed wiser to wait...

"There's no point in just sitting here. Besides, we're going to head that way eventually... might as well start now, right?"

"We could be walking into an ambush."

Miyako pursed her lips slightly. The boy always knew just what to say to get her attention... in this case, the risk of being eaten alive was worse than the boredom of sitting and waiting. She was stubborn, though, and she hated ending any conversation without feeling like she got at least a partial win.

"We'll move slow, then. If we see anything ahead, we can stop and hide."

Iori nodded. About what he expected... he knew he wasn't going to stop Miyako once she had her will set on something. He was just trying to avoid taking unnecessary risks. Not that he really knew what was or wasn't necessary at this point...

As always, Miyako led, with Iori behind her keeping watch on everything around them, looking, listening... no signs of anything come to kill them yet, which was reassuring, but still... the lack of any digimon around at all was starting to gnaw at him. This didn't... feel right. It didn't feel like walking through a forest. It seemed more like... like... what did it feel like?

"_Miya-o, Iori, c- you hear -e?"_

As Ken's voice came over the comm, Miyako ducked down next to a big tree and put her hand to her ear, as if that would help her hear better... or maybe she was trying to feel like a secret agent from the movies, sneaking through enemy territory.

"There's still some static, but you're coming through a lot better."

Iori crouched down nearby and just listened for now, occasionally drawing his earpiece back slightly so he could focus on the ambient sounds of the forest... or the lack thereof. The longer they went without encountering anyone, the more paranoid he was feeling...

"_Same on -y end. It's a -tle hard to ma- you out. -re are you?"_

"In the forest. Heading toward the signal."

"_Wha- -ave you run -to so far?"_

"Nothing. We arrived in a big field, headed toward the trees to hide... haven't seen any digimon since we showed up."

"_That's -ot right... none a- all?"_

"Not yet. Maybe they're all hiding?"

"_-aybe... -ook, you -eed to ge- to the source of -at signal as -st as you can."_

Iori raised an eyebrow, slipping the earpiece back in fully so he could hear better. That was a slight surprise... he more expected Ken to favor caution over speed. Still, he let Miyako do the talking.

"Wouldn't it be safer to move slow?"

"_-yako, some-ing is **wrong**. The -act that there are no -gimon around just helps pro- it. I don't -ow how much time you have -efo- something -ad happens, so you -eed to **hurry**."_

Miyako was ready to stand and make a run through the woods before Iori cut in. Once again he noticed something amiss about what he was hearing...

"What do you mean 'helps' prove it? What else is happening?"

There was a pause before Ken replied, which was enough to prove to Iori that he had hit on something important. Miyako apparently noticed too, and she appeared somewhat worried by that fact... well, more worried than she had already been after Ken had warned them to hurry.

"_I got a -ook at -shiro's filter. There's somethi- about this signal... it's -ot just normal i-ference. It's... asy-etrical. Li-ing data, in a patter- -at's very si-lar to the di-vices."_

Iori didn't understand enough of the technicalities to understand all the implications of that. He understood the general principles, though... it was blocking the other digivices, plus all their other equipment, including these comm devices. The only thing that could cut through it was their new digivices...

...wait a minute.

Iori grabbed his digivice from his pocket, looking at the screen for a moment as a thought struck him. If it could cut through the interference to reach the digital world, then _maybe_...

He grabbed the main body of the comm device, a small, oddly shaped box that hung on the side of his waist. It looked like an oversized MP3 player built by aliens. The headsets they wore were just that... the main box was what sent and received the signals, and Ken had wired the one on his end into his computer. Did that mean Iori could do something similar from this end?

All he could think to do was press his digivice against the case of the transmitter, but it was enough that when he did the digivice started flashing and beeping for several seconds. At the same time, Ken's signal suddenly cleared up completely.

"_What the... how- what just happened? Your signal just cleared up. The interference is just... gone."_

"I put my digivice up against the little box thing that the comm devices use."

Oddly enough, Miyako wasn't doing the same but she seemed to be able to hear Ken just fine even though there was no digivice between the two of them... so his digivice could work through _all_ the comm devices, not just his own? Unexpected, but definitely useful.

"_Of course... your digivice can cut through the static and it can link to other devices. Heh... looks like I'm still an amateur when it comes to digi-tech."_

It was a bit humbling, honestly. He'd put years of work into understanding data-based matter and life and that little digivice could still do far more in an instant than even his most advanced tech could do with him troubleshooting it for ten minutes.

"_Alright, get to the signal. Keep an eye out, but move as fast as you can."_

The pair didn't wait. Nodding to each other, they stood and started through the woods again, trying to find the clearest path they could, though there was no easy route to their destination.

"What do we do if we get attacked?"

Of course, it had to be Iori that would ask that. Ms. One-Track who was running ahead of him was too focused on their goal to stop and ask what to do if something went wrong...

"_Find a place to hide. If you can't escape, I may be able to contact Koushiro and get help from the other children once they get back from their own mission."_

Iori nodded to himself. Good... that sounded like a smart plan, and it was much better than one of them attempting a suicidal distraction so that the other could escape.

"Any idea why we haven't seen anyone yet?"

Iori grunted as he pushed a giant leaf out of his face. The area ahead of them seemed to be lightening up. Looks like they were getting close... all the more reason to ask, then. He was getting more and more worried that they were walking into an ambush.

"_The others headed into the digital world ahead of you. Could be that the Kaiser is distracted with them and not paying attention to where you are."_

"That's the enemies. What about good digimon?"

"_...I don't know. I can't see anything there. You'd know better than I would."_

Iori sighed. This was part of the reason he wanted to have one of the digidestined children with them... _they_ might be able to figure out what was happening. But no time to worry about that now. They needed to get to the signal and get out, _fast_.

Oh, and look for the resistance forces if they could. That would also help.

When they finally broke through the brush, they were both surprised to find themselves facing up toward what appeared to be a Mayan step pyramid. Of course, it couldn't be an _actual_ Mayan pyramid since the Mayans never lived in the digital world... right? Though that then led to the question of why there was a construct here that looked exactly like what they made...

...probably best not to think too hard about it, in any case.

As usual, Miyako led the charge right up and into the building while Iori followed and wondered why the _hell_ there was still no one around. Not like the Kaiser could have missed this structure if he had any forces in this area. When they reached the top of the steps he grabbed Miyako to stop her just before entering, raising one finger to his lips to motion for silence. Maybe the enemy was waiting inside in ambush?

Miyako caught his signal well enough and proceeded with caution, stepping slowly forward to search the room, checking the shadows to signs of enemies... still nothing. Not only that, the inside was surprisingly well-lit, even without any visible lighting fixtures or windows to the outside.

As they passed through the entry chamber and headed up another set of stairs, Iori noted a few oddities on the walls and ceiling. Symbols that he didn't recognize, carved into the stone. Odd... he'd have to ask someone about those later.

When they reached the inner chamber there was still no one in sight... no digimon, including the potential partners of either of them. There was, however, yet another set of stairs and a pedestal at the very top that was holding something... odd.

"Uhh... okay?"

"_What is it?"_

Ken's voice came over the comm again. This time they were each at a loss to answer, though. Good question... what _was_ it? Neither of them was really quite sure.

"It looks like... a metal egg."

Iori answered as Miyako stepped forward, noting something he had initially missed.

"It has the Crest of Love on it."

"_The Crest of Love? You're sure?"_

"_You_ were the one who showed us the crests before we left. An oddly shaped heart, right?"

Ken was quiet as Miyako stepped forward. Not much to say about it... Ken apparently didn't know what they were dealing with, but that didn't matter. This is what her digivice was apparently directing her toward, so she assumed she was supposed to take it. Figuring out what to do with it afterward... well, she'd deal with that when the time came.

When she picked it up off the pedestal, there was a suitably dramatic explosion of light that sent her stumbling back a couple steps into the shorter boy behind her. The light former into a pillar, out of which emerged a small avian digimon who quickly settled onto the edge of the platform directly in front of them.

"Hello, my name is Hawkmon. I have been waiting for you."

His tone was... surprisingly polite. Miyako wouldn't have gone so far to call it formal, but he was certainly more calm and collected than Gatomon. Likely more the other children's partners too, though Miyako only knew about them from what Hikari and Gatomon had told her.

"May I ask your name?"

Miyako suddenly felt somewhat deficient compared to... just about everyone, actually. All the original digidestined with years of experience in war, and now her partner, so controlled and polite to contrast her wild and energetic self... she attempted, for a moment, to mirror that collected attitude, though her unfamiliarity with all of this made it hard.

"Ah... Miyako. A- are you... my digimon partner?"

As soon as she asked, she felt like an idiot. Was he... _what?_ Stupid question! Of _course_ he was her partner? Who _else_ would he be? Didn't he just say he had been waiting for her?

...oh well. At least she still had Iori to share in her cluelessness.

"Partner? Hm... well, yes, I suppose that's an accurate term. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miyako-sama."

"...sama?"

The girl blinked, a little confused and taken aback by the bird's final words... though her uncertainty was missed as Iori spoke up.

"What term would _you_ use?"

He, fortunately, wasn't feeling any awkwardness, likely because it wasn't _his_ partner standing there in front of them. He didn't have to feel out of place with the digimon's attitude... besides, he tended to be more clam and polite most of the time anyway.

"I am Miyako-sama's guardian, as she in turn is-"

The digimon was abruptly cut off by the sound of both digivices beeping. First they thought it was just an incoming signal, but the beeps started multiplying to such a point that, by the time Iori even grabbed his digivice to look at the screen, there were more blips than he could count... with more appearing every second.

"Oh... _crap!_"

"_Iori, what is it? What's going on?"_

Iori wasn't sure if Ken heard any of the conversation with Hawkmon, but that didn't matter. They could explain that later. Their current plight was far more serious...

"I... I think it's enemies! Dozens, hundreds, I don't know! We're completely surrounded!"

"Ambush..."

Miyako muttered. Iori had been right... of _course_ the enemy knew about this building. Why try to ambush them on the way in and scare them out? Better to lure them in and trap them. Only one way out, and that was through the horde outside...

"Miyako-sama, we have to hurry out!"

"Wha- right into that army?"

"If we don't, they will flood the entrance and block our escape! I may be able to fly fast enough to escape them – use the Digimental of Love!"

"The wh- wait... _this?_"

Miyako had no idea what a digimental was, but this thing had the Crest of Love stamped on the front of it, so it was a fair guess that this was it. Fortunately, Hawkmon's nod confirmed it.

"It is powered by your love – use it!"

By love? What? That didn't even make sense!

"My love? _How?_"

Sure, she understood the idea in principle – Hikari had told her about all the other children's crests and how they worked – but... just how was she supposed to actually _DO_ that?

"Miyako-sama, focus! Love for your family, your friends... the desire to protect. It isn't a matter of feeling, it's about choosing to give yourself to and for what you care for. What do you care about enough to sacrifice for? Decide, and then _fight_!"

Miyako could only stare, dumbfounded for several seconds. It seemed she had been given a warrior-sage for a partner. Certainly not at all what she had been expecting, but... well, what he said sort of made sense.

What mattered enough to sacrifice for? A lot of things... but most of those didn't matter now. Her brother and sisters, her parents... they weren't here. Odaiba wasn't under siege. This was a war, but not the kind that came to them. They had walked into it, and right now there was only one thing here that needed protecting.

Iori didn't really understand why Miyako glanced his way for a moment. Maybe she was looking for some reassurance? Something to give her confidence? It didn't much matter... in the end she held out the digimental and did as the bird had suggested, concentrating on that desire to protect...

Then the digimental exploded out in a wave of light and transformed her partner into a gigantic bird with razor-edged, metal wings, and she knew she did it right.

He flew around and stood at the steps just beneath them, taking position for them to more easily climb onto his back.

"My name is Halsemon. Pleasure to meet you, Miyako-sama."

The girl couldn't help but grin. Still with the formality... even so, she likely would have played along if not for the immense danger looming outside. Climbing on his back as quickly as possible, she pulled Iori up with her before the trio was taking flight, straight out the doors and into the open air where their enemies awaited them on the ground all around-

Wait, no... not on the ground. The entire enemy army was airborne. Not only that, they were all the same kind of digimon... one that left Miyako feeling completely freaked out from the moment she caught sight of them.

"Bees."

"My god..."

Iori muttered. There were even more than he'd seen on his digivice. A whole damn hive of them, swarming in the skies all around the pyramid. Looks like it was time for them to test Halsemon's if claim to speed was true. If not... then they were well and truly screwed.

Halsemon took a dive to the base of the pyramid, trying to swoop under the army and move out into the woods where it would be easier to hide. The entire force ahead of them converged to block him, but that wasn't unexpected. In fact, it was useful... gave him a few easy targets for both the energy blades fired from his wings and his laser vision.

-wait, laser vision? Okay... _that_ was pretty darn cool. Enough to distract Miyako from the terror of the fact that they were taking on a friggin _bee swarm!_

Fortunately, her partner was unfazed and took to fighting like it was his second nature, despite this being his first actual battle. He dodged to one side and started making a wide circle around the pyramid in search of an opening in the enemy's line. Their swarm tactics made them easy targets, and the explosions from his attacks caused enough chaos among their ranks to distract so that they couldn't easily shoot back.

This didn't give him any openings, unfortunately, but he was keeping well ahead of the enemies, so they were safe, if still trapped.

Iori noted something in the conflict, though... after his attacks, some of the enemies that scattered had changed color. All the bees they saw had initially been gray. He hadn't thought anything of it initially, given all the odd and varied appearances that digimon took, but after seeing some of them shift to yellow with violet wings, it became very clear that something was amiss...

Took him a few shots to realize just what, but once he spotted it, it was obvious. Rings. Silver rings on every one of the gray bugs, but missing from the yellow ones. It was most notable for the fact that they had markings on them that reminded him of what he noticed briefly inside the pyramid. Strange symbols that he'd never seen outside the digital world. Not the same ones, but similar...

...and most importantly, the bees without the rings weren't attacking them anymore. They were _fleeing_.

"The rings! Those silver rings are controlling them!"

It didn't take more than a moment for Halsemon to pick up on what he was talking about. Unfortunately, it didn't help them much. Due to the sheer number of enemies and their swarm tactics, it was hard _not_ to hit at least one or two rings with his attacks. However, conversely, it was difficult to knock out enough of them to make any real dent in the enemy's numbers.

Their stalemate continued for several minutes, with no clear end in sight. Had the enemies attempted to make a rush at them they might have opened a hole that the children could slip through, but they were being careful to never move too far out of their original alignment. They knew the digidestined couldn't escape unless they made a mistake, so they simply weren't going to make one. The kids needed backup...

...and they got it. Not from the other children, as one might have expected, but... from another Halsemon? No, not one. Two, three... ten? Twenty? What the hell was going on? In just a few seconds there were suddenly countless other digimon flying in formation with them, identical to them in every way... right down to the children riding on their backs.

"**Dive**...!"

Miyako muttered and Halsemon dropped immediately down to ground-level. The rest of the formation, however, did not... instead, they scattered. Some high, some low, some turning completely around and others moving straight toward the enemy blockade. Instantly the swarm was in chaos, each one of the enemies moving to block a different fake flier. One or two moved after the real children, of course, but a simple laser-eye to each of their rings ended that threat right off.

"Did you see that?"

Iori caught a glimpse of something in the woods... a flash of light out of the trees. Distinct, but brief enough as to not draw _too_ much attention. Was that... that couldn't be a coincidence. Moving up, Iori pointed toward the target and Miyako guided her partner toward it.

Fortunately, they were far enough ahead that by the time any of the enemies realized the real children had slipped through, they were too far ahead for anyone to catch them. Halsemon stayed in the air until he was practically on top of where Iori saw the flash, and then he made a roller-coaster dive straight down into the trees, dodging several branches before coming down to land in the middle of a moderately sized clearing.

Hm. Not good. Not as much coverage from the trees overhead. They might be spotted here if they didn't keep-

"Magical game."

And suddenly they were invisible. Well, that was convenient. Also, they were surrounded by a number of other digimon that apparently shared their invisibility, whom they hadn't noticed until they were brought under the cloaking field as well.

"Wait, _these_ aren't the digidestined."

The first one to speak up was a little... stuffed man with a pumpkin for a head. Also, he had an axe stuck in it. There was another who quickly stepped up, though... one they both recognized from Ken's records, and who was one of the more important figures of the war. They didn't know all that he had helped with, but they understood that he had been an infiltrator in Myotismon's army since the beginning of his invasion, if not before.

Wizardmon.

"They have digivices."

His words were simple and direct. Miyako was about to open her mouth to reply when he held his finger up to his lips, motioning for silence. After a few seconds they could clearly hear the sound of the swarm sweeping over the trees above them, scanning the woods for any sign of where they might have fled to.

Miyako climbed off Halsemon as quietly as possible, followed by Iori. The trio remained in silence, waiting for all of the swarm to pass. It would be longer than expected as the enemy seemed really quite stubborn and determined not to let them get away. Ultimately it made no difference, though... silence and invisibility made them an impossible target. After a good half an hour of just sitting with the digimon and waiting, the majority of the swarm finally dispersed.

Wizardmon hovered up through the branches, apparently taking a look around before descending back to the others, giving a nod to indicate that it was safe.

The first thing to happen was Halsemon's reversion back to Hawkmon. He hadn't been certain whether or not Wizardmon's cloaking spell would mask the brief light of his evolution, so he opted simply to hold his form until the enemies were gone.

"Thank you for saving us."

Iori was the first to speak up. Miyako was meanwhile distracted by something or other involving her digivice and... her cell phone? Okay, whatever. He wasn't going to worry about it.

"No need. You're digidestined; I'm sure the favor will be returned soon enough."

"Well... sort of. We're kind of new at this..."

Wizardmon nodded, glancing over to Miyako and then back to Iori, taking a moment to look him over. It wasn't immediately obvious what he was looking for, but even so... the boy had a guess.

"Given the lack of panic that usually comes with being separated from your partner, I'm going to assume you haven't found yours yet?"

He nodded, glancing aside briefly to note the approach of Miyako, who was holding one arm out to her side, giving her partner a perch to rest on.

"...what are you doing?"

"I'm a hawk trainer!"

Iori blinked. Despite the immense danger, Miyako was still feeling giddy over the fact that she now had a digimon partner. Iori couldn't really blame her... she had looked up to Hikari and the other digidestined as her idols for a while, and now she was walking and fighting as one of them. It was arguably a dream come true... even if part of that dream was more like a nightmare.

"I thought that was eagles, not hawks..."

Miyako shrugged and grinned even wider.

"We're in the digital world. I'm not gonna worry about the details."

Eh... fair enough.

"Not to interrupt..."

Wizardmon cleared his throat lightly, bringing their attention back to their present situation.

"But I would like to remind you that we _are_ still stranded in the woods, more or less surrounded by hostiles. Even if the danger isn't immediate, we will sooner or later have to start moving again, and we'll likely be attacked. We need a plan, but before that we need to know what's been going on. How did you two _get_ here?"

Oh, right. Last thing _he_ knew Koushiro was trying to contact the original children. Now, suddenly, two new digidestined are dropped in his lap... no doubt he'd be confused.

Iori was ready to start explaining, giving the basic explanation and leaving it up to Miyako to fill in the technical details, but he stopped short, realizing that they had a much better option.

"Ken, are you still there?"

"Ken...?"

Wizardmon raised an eyebrow, having not noticed the headset the boy was wearing before. Those things weren't really used by any of the children in the first war, so they didn't catch his attention as quickly as they might have if he was more familiar with them.

"_I'm here. Been checking the network, keeping up on the condition of the others since I couldn't help your fight. They're back in the human world now... six signals came back, though only five originally left. I'm going to guess that means Daisuke's found his partner."_

Two out of three, then. That was good... just his left to get, but they'd focus on that later. Right now they had different priorities.

"Ken, we found the- uh... well, I guess the resistance found _us_. I'm giving my headset to Wizardmon. He needs to know what's going on, and you know more than any of us."

It was slightly awkward switching over. Wizardmon wasn't used to the odd little earpieces they were using. He wasn't used to _most_ human technology, for that matter. Even back during the war he hadn't actually been equipped with any of this stuff most of the time. Still, he was more or less human in shape, so at least it wasn't like they were trying to put a headset on Hawkmon or some other animal-like digimon.

After that, Iori just sat back and relaxed against a tree, waiting for the others to talk through everything that had happened since the start. By listening to Wizardmon's replies he could more or less keep up with the general discussion. A lot of talk went into the conditions in the human world, plus the state of the digidestined.

Wizardmon was, sensibly, thinking about the long-term war. Sure, a swarm of giant bees was a danger now, but by tomorrow it would be forgotten except perhaps in a few scattered nightmares. In the days and weeks to come, the overall condition of their team would be the most important factor in the war.

One point in particular seemed to be of interest to Wizardmon... the current whereabouts and condition of a certain boy named Takeru. Iori certainly noticed that, and gave Miyako a look indicating that he did. Unfortunately, even wearing her headset she got no more useful information than he did. Ken said nothing except that his current state was unknown.

For someone who was apparently so important, everyone was putting a lot of effort into not actually saying a damn thing about him...

The rest of the conversation was less important. Little technical details here and there, followed by Wizardmon and Miyako explaining what had happened on the digital world side of things in greater detail.

Wizardmon's story was nothing special. The resistance group had been hiding using his invisibility mask and staying on the move, albeit slowly. They were trying to stay in the same general area they had been in when they talked to Koushiro so that they'd be easy to find later. When they noticed the swarm moving – and specifically _not_ going after their group – they followed. They figured the target was a digimon village or the like... someone that needed rescue. Wizardmon figured that perhaps he could pull a few out and cloak them.

Well, he was right about the rescue part. It just happened that it was humans that needed it, not digimon.

Finally, the headset was returned to Iori and they were back to the present, focusing on their current mission. Obviously the boy needed to find his partner, but that took a backseat to their current priority. Namely, getting their digimon allies out of there as fast as possible.

"First, we should get through the woods and check the condition of the gate terminal. If it's unguarded we may be able to escape easily. If not... we'll need a plan."

No protest from Iori. Like Koushiro said, no heroics... the same with Miyako as well. Though she was a bit more eager to run ahead and do something dangerous, she wasn't going to risk her life needlessly. Besides, they'd had quite a bit of excitement already. No reason not to just run on home with their new digimon friends and tag this mission as a success.

They worked back across the forest slowly and carefully, trying to find the most open path they could. Being seen wasn't a problem, but being heard still was. They weren't sure how easily the lingering scouts could hear them over the sound of their own buzzing, but it was best to play it safe just in case.

Unfortunately, when they reached the field where they had arrived they found it far more heavily guarded than they initially expected. Most of the swarm that was still around was there. Not the hundreds that surrounded the pyramid, but at least a few dozen, and all close to the terminal. They were expecting an escape...

The group moved back into the woods, withdrawing behind some heavy brush, though it wasn't necessary. It was more for peace of mind than actual necessity.

"Can't we just make a run for the gate? We're still invisible, right?"

Typical Miyako plan... she had a target, so she went for it. Granted, it wasn't outright reckless or stupid, but it definitely demonstrated her tendency for tunnel-vision planning.

"That would be... unwise. The invisibility that covers us can be easily disrupted, I'm afraid. With the gate closed, one of you will have to reopen it, and that will likely expose you."

"Only for a few seconds."

"A few seconds can be fatal."

Miyako crossed her arms, clearly displeased with Wizardmon for shooting down her plan. She wasn't going to argue, though... she was concerned for the lives of the others, especially Iori. Not everyone had the amazingly awesome partner for protection that she did. Besides, there were other options...

"Could we get Daisuke to open the gate from the other side?"

"If you want to put the enemy on high alert, certainly."

A similar sentiment was echoed by Ken on the comm. He could get word to the others, but if the enemy saw the terminal become active they would probably become more wary.

"What about attacking? There's not as many as before, and we have backup now."

Worse and worse... Iori shook his head while Wizardmon sighed, motioning to the scattered digimon around them, most of them small and not looking very dangerous at all. Only a couple seemed like they'd be able to hold their own, specifically the pumpkin-head and a tall robot who had been silent thus far. As for the rest...

"Most of the digimon here are children. Their attacks aren't strong enough to hurt the enemies out there... and before you say we only need to attack the rings, let me remind you that we are still outnumbered and we would need to stand up to their forces long enough to reduce their numbers by hitting said rings."

Miyako pursed her lips slightly. Less and less pleased by the minute, but she kept her cool... she got no less stubborn, of course, but at least she wasn't rushing into anything stupid.

Iori sighed, turning away for a moment as he tried to think this through. It was extremely frustrating to him as well... their target was right _there_. Just an easy run across an open field, and yet they couldn't reach it due to the presence of enemies. Enemies which couldn't even _see_ them, but could still be a threat if they got close enough to be heard or if they accidentally made themselves visible.

"Perhaps we should keep moving. Leave this area and find another terminal that is less guarded."

As soon as the idea was uttered by Wizardmon, Miyako rejected it. Nope. No running away. They were gonna take this stupid terminal and be out of here by dinner. It was just a question of how...

"That'd take way too long. Besides... all we've really gotta do is get rid of the scouts, right?"

Wizardmon nodded slowly, cautiously... he obviously didn't like where this was headed. Iori didn't either, and knowing Miyako so much better than the digimon did, he was less concerned about the idea of Miyako suggesting something crazy than he was... _certain_ of it.

"Alright! I've got the perfect plan!"

Oh god. Her enthusiasm only meant it was going to be that much worse...

"I take Halsemon and charge the line. Get all of their attention and pull them away from terminal. Maybe even pick a few off by hitting some rings."

There was an audible slap from Iori's palm striking his forehead. Most people might have suggested more cautious plans once the danger became evident, but Miyako apparently got more and more reckless with each idea.

Oddly enough, neither Ken nor Wizardmon shot down the idea right away as he expected. When he moved his hand aside to look up, he saw the latter looking ahead, apparently giving the idea serious consideration. What...?

"It would be more difficult than the previous fight. The enemy is likely to pursue you much further than they did at the pyramid. They were merely trying to block your escape before..."

"Halsemon can outrun them. He's fast enough."

Still no rebuttal. Iori briefly wondered if this insanity was actually going to go through...

"You're not seriously considering this...?"

Wizardmon half-nodded, either oblivious to how crazy this sounded or simply not caring.

"I would need to ride with her as well, just in case... but if you took all the others through the gate while the scouts were distracted, I could then cloak her and she could come around and head through the open gate behind you."

Now... Iori wasn't stupid. He understood the general merits of this plan and he could see how it might work... better than all the other ideas, anyway. The problem was, he also saw all the flaws. What if all the enemy scouts didn't follow her and some stayed behind? What if they somehow became visible and didn't have Wizardmon there to hide them again? What if the enemy did something altogether unexpected and they didn't know how to respond?

He offered all of these questions, of course, though they didn't seem to deter Wizardmon in the slightest. More surprising, he seemed content to answer them all with a single reply.

"Simply be flexible; the best plan is one that can be easily changed."

Iori didn't really see _how_ this plan could be easily changed, but fortunately Wizardmon was quick to offer a follow up to elaborate.

"Wait at the edge of the woods and watch. If there are too many scouts staying behind, don't go. We can go back into the woods to hide and reconsider our plan. If there are few enough enemies, a fight won't be a major risk. Pumpkinmon and Andromon can stop them long enough for you all to flee. As for the enemy, we've been on the run long enough to recognize most of the Kaiser's tricks. They may have something unexpected waiting for you, but if you're invisible and the path is clear, they shouldn't be able to spring it before you escape."

Okay, so... maybe it wasn't an insane plan after all. Still, it left Iori somewhat uneasy, especially for Miyako's safety. She was going to be making the majority of the risk on herself, and once the others had left she would be on her own to defend herself. Not like he could protest that, though... he didn't even have a partner to fight with yet.

They took a minute to consult with Ken and go over the entire plan to make sure it had his approval. Unfortunately, getting in contact with the other children would take some time, so they weren't going to have any quickly available backup waiting for them if things went bad.

Well, they that just meant they had to be more careful... something which Iori certainly agreed with.

Once the discussion was finished, Iori moved with his group to the edge of the woods. He'd be leading the main team, opening the gate and bringing them back to Ken's house while Pumpkinmon and Andromon covered their flank, just in case. That meant that it was up to him to decide when to make the run... he really didn't want to go _at all_, but the plan was set. If he didn't do his part, he'd end up putting them in danger for no reason.

Taking a deep breath, he signaled back to Miyako and Halsemon, who waited at the edge of the cover for a sign. Alright, time to go...

Wizardmon decloaked himself along with the duo as they took flight. Halsemon immediately fired shots into the cluster of enemies. Wing blades, laser eyes... rapid fire, hit everything you can. Miyako had decided to play it out as a frontal assault, with the intent of taking out the rings in order to break up the enemy line. She figured that would make it less likely that they'd realize it was a diversion. Fortunately, a few seconds and six broken rings later, she was proven correct. The entire force turned to converge on her, leaving the terminal completely unguarded.

No way out now. Iori bolted out of the woods, followed by a pack of small digimon and a couple larger ones. The trampled grass could likely be seen easily by anyone paying attention, but with Halsemon flying at full speed and taking random shots at his pursuers, nobody much cared to watch the terminal until Iori's group finally reached it.

As expected, the invisibility faded as soon as Iori held out his digivice to activate the terminal. It took a few seconds for the gate to connect back to Ken's house, and in that time the buzzing screeches of the bugs were audible behind him as several of them broke off from Miyako to attack him.

Fortunately, it was only Iori's invisibility that faded, so the bugs were caught completely off guard when Andromon suddenly appeared and launched a pair of missiles from its chest, followed by a blade of lightning from its hand.

Pumpkinmon's attacks were far less... dramatic? Still, they were useful. After the initial three bees had their rings shattered from Andromon's attacks, another two broke off from the main swarm and tried to catch them off-guard before he could reload. This was answered by the shorter puppet-digimon creating a pair of... giant pumpkins. One was dropped on the head of the first bug, pushing it down to the ground, while the other actually formed around the second, locking it in a temporary prison and giving Iori enough time to establish a connection.

"It's open! Let's go!"

The entire group rushed up to the terminal, making sure they were all crowded close enough that none would be left behind when they passed through. Unfortunately, the pumpkin prison didn't last long. The bee promptly broke out to continue after them, now twice as angry as before. It wasn't close enough to reach them though, and Iori wasn't interested in a fight. He simply activated the terminal and in a few moments he was back in the human world.

The sudden influx of digimon that came along with him instantly crowded the computer room where Ken was sitting, but luckily there weren't so many that they ended up falling on or crushing any of the terminals he had set up.

While Ken took a moment to start ushering a few of the smaller digimon out into the living room to free up space, Iori turned his attention to the computer, waiting for Miyako to come around and-

And nothing. Before she could even get close, the image on the screen turned red and a small window popped up in the middle of the screen.

**CONNECTION LOST**

What...?

"_KEN!_"

The boy's scream was enough to immediately alert the older boy to the fact that there was a very serious problem. One who rarely spoke and even more rarely raised his voice, screaming suddenly at the top of his lungs? Yeah... only from Takeru would that scare him more.

"Connection- what? Miyako! Can you hear me? What's going on?!"

Fortunately, they still had the comm units, and whatever Iori's digivice had done to cut through the interference, it was still working fine.

"_The terminal was destroyed! I think one of the bees attacked right as they were heading through the gate! Is everyone okay?"_

One of the- oh... ooooohhh no... oh... _damn_ it! The last enemy, which he'd left behind in favor of escape. It shot at them while they were... right there, crowded around the terminal. They escaped, and it hit the terminal instead.

Iori was stunned into silence. Fortunately Ken maintained enough of his composure to keep focused on the mission.

"Don't worry about them, they're all fine! What about you? Can you get out of there?"

"_We just cloaked again. We're heading into the woods to hide... don't worry about us. We're fast and invisible – we'll be fine. Can you figure out another way out of here?"_

"Already on it. It'll take some time, though... play it safe and avoid any enemies in the meantime. Also, consider looking for somewhere to forage for food, unless Wizardmon has some already. You may be stuck for a while and digimon have a harder time evolving if they're too hungry."

About halfway through Ken's monologue, Iori suddenly regained his composure as a realization struck him. There was no denying he had made a serious mistake, but what was done was done, wasn't it? Miyako was still in the digital world, still in danger... they had to get her out. _He_ had to get her out. It was his fault that she had been left behind, so he had to mount a rescue... and not soon, either. _Now_.

Stripping off all the comm gear Ken had given him, Iori rushed out to the door, just barely stopped short by Pumpkinmon grabbing him.

"Wait, what are you _doing_?"

"I'm going to the Hunters. That's where the other digidestined are. I have to get their help to rescue Miyako."

"Then we're going with you."

It didn't take Pumpkinmon even a second to decide on what he was going to do. The kid obviously needed help, and he was going to make sure he had backup. All the other digimon scattered around the living room seemed to share the sentiment as well. Unfortunately, their plans were cut short as Ken stepped out of his room.

"You _can't_ go out! You step out that door and every DG sensor in this sector will go off, not to mention the panic you'll cause if the people on the streets see you... we have to do this smart."

Iori's fist suddenly slammed against the door, booming through the room and jolting everyone back slightly. Like Ken, they had all seen enough of Iori to assume he was always quiet and calm... typically that would be true, but extreme circumstances called for extreme reactions, especially when he felt personally responsible for them.

"Then DO IT! _You_ come up with the plan! Just figure it out fast, because I'm _not_ going to just sit here and wait while my best friend is in danger!"

Best friend? That felt a little odd to say as he'd never actually said it before... it was true, though. Outside of his own family, Miyako was one of his closest friends. Hikari too, but he'd known the first girl a lot longer – since back in the early days of the first invasion, even.

Ken nodded and turned back to his control room, gesturing for Iori to follow him. He already had a rough plan ready. With Miyako and Wizardmon both trapped, neither Iori nor their resistance friends would be safe trying to go to the digital world alone. First, they needed backup, and there was only one place they could get it.

A call soon went out to Koushiro. Time to call Daisuke back to the digital world...


	4. Reckless

REMINDER: Check the top of my profile page for a link to the Digital Hazard forum, made by Swords and Roses.

A/N: Okay... I want to take a moment to counter any claims by readers that some of the characters, particularly the new ones, are behaving majorly out of character.

...what's that? Nobody's made that claim yet? Well, read this chapter first.

I'm fully aware how character development is progressing in this story, so if anybody questions some of the behavior of any of the characters, don't worry. It'll be answered in the next chapter or two.

Also, as I finished this chapter I realized that it isn't as long as the other ones so far. It barely scrapes the 6k word mark, while all the other chapters in Book 2 have hit at least 7k. Still, I'm churning out roughly a chapter a week at this point, so I doubt anyone's going to complain about it being a little shorter. If they do... well, get over it! I'm happy with the progress I'm making, and I'm my own biggest critic, so it don't matter whatcha think of it. =P

Chapter 4: Reckless

**Hero, one part brave, three parts fool.**

It took a bit of finagling on Ken's part to get in contact with the Hunters. Calling was simple enough, but he was still an unidentified signal working inside the network. If they detected him at the base they might trigger an alarm... so instead, he contacted Koushiro. The latter was then able to link Taichi and the Hunter base into the conversation without setting off any red lights.

If Iori wasn't so focused on getting back to the digital world, he might have questioned why Ken was still so stuck on trying to stay invisible to the Hunters, but right then he just didn't care. Whatever worked for the boy, as long as it was fast...

Ken quickly explained the situation. Relatively safe, but it had the potential to go very wrong... Miyako needed out of the digital world soon, and for that she'd likely need backup.

"While we were setting the call up, I told Miyako and Wizardmon to start heading toward the gate terminal south of them. According to Wizardmon it's a pretty rough area, though. Hard to travel by land."

"Why did you do _that_? Was that the closest gate?"

Taichi had to assume it was... no other reason to send her that way. Besides, Ken was saying they needed to get her out quickly, so speed was likely the main thing on his mind.

"No. According to the resistance, there are gate terminals scattered all over. They could use any of them to escape with. The terrain there favors them, though. They're flyers, so they can just go right over everything while any ground-based enemies will be slowed down."

That wasn't the only reason, of course. Iori knew there was another, much more important one that he hadn't told anyone yet...

"Why are there so many terminals in that area? Was there something special there during the war?"

This time Taichi's question was directed to Koushiro. After the war ended, he had created a number of terminals to allow the children easy access back to the digital world if an emergency arose. Before, the Dark Network nodes had been their primary means of connecting, but they weren't going to leave that entire system up for some other psycho to take over and use further down the road.

"They're not mine."

Koushiro answered flatly, his tone clearly reflecting his chagrin.

"I created a dozen terminals and placed them at key locations in the digital world. All the locations were at least a day apart and each was secured. Guarded by a town or village, hidden in a cave... none of them were left out in the open."

"So who the hell created _these_?"

"It doesn't matter."

Ken cut them off, sensing Iori's frustration at sitting back and just listening to them argue over something that wasn't even important right now.

"They're there, they work like Koushiro's... we can figure out how they got there after we rescue Miyako."

"So what's the plan, then? It seems like waiting is our best option. If they have Wizardmon's stealth, they should be able to get to the terminal undetected and get back on their own."

Taichi had gotten a bit more pragmatic since the war ended... something which Ken didn't entirely approve of. Even if his plan was sensible enough, it was... soft. Lax. Back when they fought Myotismon they had to cover for every contingency and just-in-case scenario. They assumed the worst and prepared for it. Now it was like he was just taking it easy, choosing the most convenient path... like he didn't take their new enemy seriously.

"_No_. _Your_ first visit to the digital world was met with only minor resistance. Miyako and Iori were faced with an _army_. We don't know what the Kaiser is going to do to try to catch her, so we need to have support ready."

"He doesn't even know where she's _going_."

"Doesn't need to. He has enough of a force to guard _all_ the closest terminals."

Ken turned away to another screen then, forcibly ending the argument right there. He didn't much care that Taichi was an officer in the Hunters now and was, technically, still the leader of the Digidestined. Screw protocol... Ken didn't answer to either of those things. He was an independent. Always had been.

"Iori's digivice was able to connect to several terminals in this area. The one I directed Miyako to was the closest one to the signal from Iori's digivice."

Ken pushed a button on cue and two blips appeared on the screens of Taichi and Koushiro, marking both the digimental signal and the terminal.

"His digimental and partner are there, somewhere in that rocky area. They have about an hour to find them before Miyako arrives, and with a full team of three-"

"Hold it!"

Taichi found himself facing a rush of that same frustration that Yamato must have felt hundreds of times during the war... reckless people making reckless plans and rushing in head first, ignoring all common sense. Worse was the fact that Taichi was, at least _in theory_, the team leader and Ken was working around him like he wasn't even there.

"That's _if_ they manage to find his partner. If the Kaiser is sending guards to that gate, they could be jumping right into a trap! I won't authorize what could be a suicide mission!"

"I don't need your authorization."

To everyone's surprise, it was Iori who was the first to speak in outright defiance to Taichi's command. He was responsible for Miyako being trapped, so he was going to make it right... and Daisuke was going to help him..._ probably_.

He wasn't certain, but he got a sense from that boy that he wasn't the kind to leave any of his friends in danger. Even if he barely knew Miyako _now_, they were both still digidestined and comrades in arms. They needed each other, just like the first Digidestined did... and besides that, he was the one between them that was actually able to fight. Would he leave Iori hanging? Maybe... but not likely.

Iori didn't give Taichi time to respond. He had already donned the comm headset again and was ready to go, so... he went. The computer was connected, so he activated his digivice and jumped through, leaving the others to figure themselves out.

Koushiro and Taichi were both caught off guard by Iori's recklessness, enough so that when Daisuke moved up to activate the gate on their end and jump through Taichi wasn't able to react fast enough to catch him.

Hikari, on the other hand, was.

She didn't actually try to stop him, though. Instead he only felt a hand firmly grab his arm before the jump, and upon arriving he found Hikari and Gatomon right there next to him. She couldn't travel to the digital world with just her digivice... she also needed the help of one of the new children, so there was no way for her to get there if Daisuke jumped in ahead of her. She had to make sure she went with him, otherwise she'd be left behind and stuck just watching and waiting for them to return.

Besides, if Taichi complained about it later she could claim she was trying to stop him and got pulled along by accident.

Daisuke was rather surprised to find her going along with this, but he wasn't going to question it just now. He wasn't a genius, but he was smart enough to know that as soon as they got back the shit would hit the fan and _everyone_ was going to made to answer for recklessness. No reason to sit here and question it when they were going to just end up talking over the whole thing again later.

Iori was there as well, already checking his digivice to figure out where they needed to go. Unfortunately, if the directions were right, the journey looked to be a bit more tricky this time... the area was just as rough and rocky and Wizardmon had warned. Very few plants around, so if they were going to hide they'd have to do so under rocks or in caves.

As always there was nobody around which indicated that this region, like the others they had visited, was under the Kaiser's control. Wherever his forces were, though, they weren't at the gate, much to the fortune of the children. Either they'd arrived before the enemies or the enemies simply weren't coming. Either way, they still had a job to do and limited time to do it with, so they'd best get to work immediately.

"So, uh... how are we doing this?"

Daisuke felt a little awkward... Taichi wasn't here to lead, so he wasn't sure who was in charge. He was the one with the strongest partner, but Iori was the one who knew where they were going...

"I'm in charge."

Hikari put an end to his train of thought right away. They didn't have time to sit and argue over what they were doing, and besides that, she knew Taichi would be angry later if she let either of the rookies lead. Might as well take charge...

"I've fought before, I was in charge of a Hunter division for at least a little while... I have the most experience, so it's easiest if I command."

Hm. Well, Daisuke couldn't argue with that. Glancing over, he wondered about Iori's reaction, but it seemed like he wasn't even paying attention. Though before Daisuke could say anything the boy cut him off, speaking without taking his eyes off the rocky path ahead of them.

"So what's the plan?"

"Get the digimental, get back here, hide as much as possible. Iori, you lead. Daisuke, Veemon, be ready to fight at any second. Gatomon, keep both eyes and ears open. _Go_."

Daisuke was taken aback slightly at Hikari's shift in demeanor. He'd seen it before when they were back at the school, but this time was so much more... _intense_. Her eyes were cold. The tone of her voice made it sound like they were walking to their deaths... he understood the principle of preparing for the worst, but... dear _god_, this seemed a little extreme.

As soon as they started on the path they found that the risk of combat wasn't going to be the worst part of their search. It was a relatively easy start, but as they worked into the winding paths over and between mesas both small and large they found that this area was far from anything that might be considered civilized. If anything resembled an actual road, it was purely by chance. The only digimon that could have lived in this area were diggers or flyers. Nobody else in their right mind would make this region their home.

Still... they made good progress, all things considered. It took less than half an hour to track down the main plateau from which the signal was emanating. Climbing onto a rocky outcropping nearby to get a look at the top, they spotted nothing of note, so... looks like it was going to be another cave.

That was the tricky part. There was obviously a path leading to the space under the main plateau, but they had to work their way around until they actually found it. Given its size, that was likely to eat up a good chunk of time...

Daisuke opted for an easy solution. Evolving Veemon, he sent him to go ascend one of the more forgiving cliffs and search around from the top edge, looking for any sign of paths leading up or into the rock formation.

Thankfully, Flamedramon was fast enough that the task didn't take too long. Soon enough he was bounding back down the side of the cliff with directions to a rough path leading up one side of the mesa to some caves.

Perfect. The way leading to the path was a little tough to work over, but Flamedramon was able to help them over the worst parts of it. Soon enough they were ascending the final path to the main cave where they assumed Iori's digimental waited.

Now Hikari just had to wonder if they would be able to get back in time... if it took _this_ long to get to the cave, how would it be going back, especially if the Kaiser's forces showed up?

Iori and Daisuke weren't worried about that, though. They rushed ahead, the former intent on finding his partner and the latter making sure to protect him just in case they were ambushed. Not that Hikari expected an ambush...

The others were still novices. They had a tendency to forget everything they had on hand, particularly their digivices which could pick up hostile signals well before they arrived. They also hadn't started using the devices for communication yet, depending instead on Ken's tech to help them along.

She'd have to make sure they all got trained to use these things before their next mission. They couldn't just keep stumbling around the digital world like this and expect to fight off someone with an army of comparable size to what Myotismon's had been.

The path inside was fairly simple. It was actually far less rough than the cliffs outside, though that wasn't _too_ much of a surprise... like the pyramid from before, this place had clearly been carved out with a single purpose in mind – it was there to house the digimental. Everything outside was affected by the weather and other natural occurrences, but the inside looked like it had been untouched since it was made.

As they headed to the back of the cave, Iori noted a few familiar symbols carved into various parts of the cave walls. Nowhere obvious, but definitely there. More of those things... they seemed to be _everywhere_ in this world. He'd have to ask Koushiro about them later. They might be important to their fight.

As expected, they found the digimental at the back of the cave, marked with another symbol on the front. Iori took a few seconds looking it over, studying the symbol, much to Daisuke's confusion.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to remember which crest this is. Ken showed us a list..."

"Knowledge."

Hikari cut in, having rounded the corner a few seconds before and spotting the symbol.

Hmm... that didn't seem right. That sounded more like something Miyako ought to have. _She_ was the smart one. He was just the... what was he? The careful one? Was there even a crest for that?

Regardless, he had to keep in mind that they were on a time budget, so he grabbed the digimental and stepped back, waiting for the inevitable flash of light and the appearance of his partner. It proceeded much the same as Miyako's had... right up until the digimon actually came into view.

The light quickly faded, leaving behind a small yellow mammal creature, curled up in a ball. Was he... asleep?

Iori nudged him a couple times, stirring up awake. The little ball slowly uncurled, yawning as he stretched for a few seconds. When he finally opened his eyes and looked around, he didn't have the keen focus that Hawkmon immediately possessed. Rather, he seemed much more... confused.

"Hm...? Who're you people, dagyaa?"

He glanced between each of them a few times, eyes briefly settling on Flamedramon as a hint of recognition crossed his features. Then he looked up to Iori, noting the digimental in his hands.

"Oh. Are you the one who woke me? I guess that makes you my partner! Nice to meet you, dagyaa!"

Uhhhhh... o-kay...?

"Um... nice to meet you. I'm Iori."

"Iori? Oh, right. I'm Armadillomon. Thanks for waking me up."

He stretched again, yawning wide and shaking his whole body a bit to try to stir himself completely awake.

"Ahhh... I had a good nap. Anyway... guess it's time to go then, dagyaa?"

Iori sighed lightly to himself. He was rapidly becoming accustomed to everything in the digital world being exactly what he didn't expect... this was just the latest example of that phenomena. For a moment he almost humored the idea that this was a mix up and that he and Miyako had each gotten the wrong partner. But no... their digivices were clear on what was what. He'd just have to figure out what was up with this whole mixed-partner business after they got back to the safety of their own world.

Iori nodded, motioning back to the others. Like his partner said... time to go. This time Daisuke led the way and Iori followed up at the rear, holding his digimental with a bit of... confused curiosity. A fact which Armadillomon apparently noticed.

"What's wrong, dagyaa?"

Iori snapped out of his brief, distracted stupor and glanced over to his partner, then back to the digimental, sighing lightly.

"I guess... I'm just wondering why I got this digimental. Some of the other kids are a lot smarter than me... why was _I_ given knowledge?"

Armadillomon actually laughed at the question. Not exactly the reply Iori expected... but then, lately _nothing_ was as he expected, so... this was getting to be fairly normal.

"You just answered your own question, dagyaa!"

"What? I was given knowledge because I don't _have_ any?"

The little digimon laughed again and shook his head. Apparently he was going to be the free spirit of their group. Oh well... he was still more likely to be a voice of sanity than Daisuke or Miyako.

"No no... you're wondering! Knowledge isn't just knowing stuff, it's _wanting_ to know stuff. Smart people ask questions, dumb people think they have all the answers, dagyaa."

Hmmm... so his ignorance actually made him... _more_ knowledgeable? That seemed like an odd paradox, but it made a weird sort of sense, at least the way that Armadillomon explained it.

"So it's not so much knowledge as... curiosity?"

"Sure! But don't forget, you keep asking questions and eventually you'll get all that knowledge, dagyaa."

"So it's not so much about where I am as where I'm going..."

"Yup! See, you're sounding smarter already, dagyaa!"

Iori nodded. Free spirit or not, Armadillomon was no fool. Maybe they'd make a good team after all... however, those thoughts were suddenly cut off as Iori nearly ran head-first into Daisuke. At first he didn't know why the boy had stopped, but the beeping from his digivice and a quick glance around revealed the answer.

Crap. Surrounded. There were digimon up on the surrounding plateaus and down in the crevices surrounding their elevated path. Several of them were already climbing up and down the cliffs in order to get close enough to attack.

On the bright side, there were no bees this time. All the digimon looked fairly small... little stone men standing or climbing nearby. They didn't seem too tough, but Iori also knew that size didn't matter for digimon. Gatomon was roughly as powerful as a full grown dinosaur form of Taichi's partner, so this horde could be just as dangerous as the bees, if not more so.

"How tough are these guys?"

Figures Daisuke would ask... running away obviously wasn't his first option. Then again, he probably thought the same as Iori did regarding the danger.

"One on one? Nothing. Fifty at once...?"

Fair enough. Still, they had three fighters here, and it was tough terrain. The enemies couldn't all attack at once. If they could break a few rings and get the freed digimon to help, they might be able to hold them-

A roar echoing over the mesas silenced that thought right away. A large dinosaur-like digimon climbed around one of the nearby cliffs, holding itself up on the side of the rock wall itself so that it appeared to be standing sideways. Though it walked on all fours it moved with surprising ease and grace. Quite agile... and likely fast as well.

None of the children had seen this sort of digimon before, so they didn't know what to expect. Thus, when Hikari gave a quick command for Iori to prepare for a fight, he didn't hesitate. Digimental time. Evolve his partner and get ready for a drawn out fight...

However, he was surprised to see the form his partner took. Large, clad in gold armor, apparently an insect now, and armed with five large drills.

"What..."

"Digmon! Let's rock, dagyaa!"

Hikari noticed the change as well, and her mind immediately went to the big picture strategy. Heavily armored... it was doubtful he was agile enough to counter a bunch of small gotsumon and an extremely lithe reptile. On the other hand, five drills on a rocky path? Yeah, this was a no-brainer...

"Iori! Clear a path back to the terminal!"

Wait, what?

"No! I'm not abandoning my friends again!"

"Iori, get that stupid path clear and get back to the terminal! That'll give us a path to retreat. Besides, Miyako will be there soon – get her over here to help us!"

Iori grit his teeth. Dammit... he hated doing this, especially after what happened before, but... Hikari was right. Digmon could cut their travel time down to a fraction of what it might otherwise be, and if he could get them extra backup...

Alright, fine. He'd go... but he sure as hell wasn't leaving the digital world unless they were all together. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

Digmon ducked as Iori ran up behind him, jumping up onto his back. Then he started down the path back to the gate terminal – or rather, what was about to _become_ the path. There were a few steep drops, a number of scattered rocks or boulders in their way... but those were no big deal. Four drills were enough to cut a rough path through to a more clear area. Heck, he didn't even have to use his nose! That made it a lot easier to keep moving while he drilled.

Oddly, the rock-men didn't pursue him. Maybe the others were just an easier target because they were stationary, or maybe they just didn't want to divide their forces. Either way, he got away free of trouble while the first of the little digimon got to the children's level.

"Can you can handle this, Gatomon?"

Gatomon actually smirked as she bared her claws.

"_Please_..."

Really? Gostumon? Yeah... this was no big deal to her. The only challenge _these_ guys posed was in hitting those stupid rings around their necks. The big chins would probably get in the way... otherwise, she could take these guys on blindfolded.

Then the reptile leaped off the cliff, landing a few feet above them on the path to the cave, opposite the bulk of the gotsumon horde. Okay... so apparently it had crazy-good jumping ability, too.

"Can you two handle_ that_?"

Flamedramon glanced back for a second, claws opening.

"_Please_."

Hikari couldn't help but chuckle a little. Even so, it was clear that Daisuke's end of the fight would be quite a bit tougher... though Flamedramon put up a facade of strength and confidence, he nevertheless shifted into a battle-ready pose, apparently expecting the worst.

And the enemy had the high ground. Best not to give him the first strike, then.

Gatomon rushed forward, swiping out at each of the gostumon that approached. Their tough skin gave her some leeway – fortunately, though she might hurt them a little, she didn't have to worry about causing any serious accidental injuries if she brushed them too close. Her claws on a human neck would be outright fatal. Rocky necks? Maybe leave a mark, but nothing _too_ serious.

First swipe, second swipe... two swipes at once. Four down already. Five, six, eight, nine, eleven, twelve, thirteen. All around her the freed gotsumon stumbled as they returned to their senses and she continued down the path, clearing a way for Hikari and Daisuke to follow.

Behind them, the lizard was clawing at Flamedramon, quickly pushing him back. The ring was around its torso, which made it a tricky target. With the way they were positioned it was impossible to get a good angle on it. He could always jump over to a mesa on the side, but then there'd be nothing between that thing and the children...

He managed to fire back and singe its front claws, though. Mind controlled or not, the pain was still able to distract it so that it had a hard time moving forward. Eventually, though, it got fed up with the games and decided to launch itself at Flamedramon and the children, apparently intent on simply running them over and taking them out all at once.

"Hit _now_!"

Daisuke shouted just as the creature drew back, just before the launch. Flamedramon reacted instinctively, throwing a spear of flame right between the beast's eyes. The hit did just what Daisuke had hoped it would. When it jumped forward, it had to do so with its eyes closed and while distracted by the searing pain on its face.

Its trajectory went wildly off course, throwing the beast onto a nearby cliff wall before falling into a small valley between it and them. It clawed wildly to grab the rock wall and slow its descent, ultimately succeeding it catching itself, but by the time it was able to work its way back up to the the children were already breaking out into a full run after Gatomon, who was well ahead of them on Digmon's trail, at the bottom of the path that led up into the mesa cave.

"Twenty-onetwothree! Five! Sixseven!"

Gatomon was blazing a path through the enemies. The more fell, the more came, and she just upped her speed to match it. Hell, she was was actually _enjoying_ herself. She'd not been able to fight like this since back in the war.

She and Hikari had taken a couple trips back to the digital world to help Koushiro with taking apart the Dark Network, specifically with dealing with the other lowlifes who tried to take control of it. However, in each of those cases she had evolved in order to drive them away. Sure, that was all well and good... she was much stronger as Angewomon form than she was now, but she just couldn't have the wild fun that came with having a tail and claws. Plus she didn't have to feel guilty about killing anyone either since all her enemies would ultimately survive this encounter.

Once down on the lower level again, the children rushed ahead of their partners, leaving them to hold back the tide of enemies while they tried to move to a safer position.

That was cut short by the giant lizard jumping clear over the entire fight and landing on the far side, blocking their escape, but hey... they tried.

Fortunately, Flamedramon was no slouch when it came to jumping. He was able to dive over the enemies and land in front of the children before the beast could get a swipe at them.

"S'matter? Don't got enough barbecued talons yet? Need me to char a few more for ya?"

The beast growled and lunged forward, trying and failing to take a bite out of Flamedramon's torso. Jump and dodge – too slow!

Hikari noticed the reaction, though... and it seemed a bit odd to her. The creature was angry? If it was being mind controlled, it should have just been a puppet... no emotion or personality to speak of. So why was it able to react like it actually felt anything?

There was no time for her to speculate. Too much fighting still going on all around them, and she had to be ready to run for cover at any moment... but she had a question. Something to investigate. That would help them later, once they started working on figuring out just who the hell the Kaiser was and what he or she was after...

Fortunately, as dangerous as the big lizard was, it was starting to feel the hurt from Flamedramon's hits, and Gatmon was holding firm against the gotsumon swarm. They were trapped, but they weren't actually in much danger...

The fight continued and Hikari began to notice another abnormality. The gotsumon that were left were... scattering? No... they were... making a path? Wait-

"Daisuke! Out of the way!"

Fortunately, the boy didn't need to ask why. He simply dodged and rolled to the side as the lizard came diving past them once again. Flamedramon jumped clear at the last moment, attempting to hit the ring with a quick shot, but that was a miss. Oh well. At least that thing missed all its targets.

Hikari wasn't quite so happy about that outcome, though. The gotsumon moved well before the creature prepared to jump. They knew it was coming. Somehow they were able to coordinate without any verbal communication, visual signals... that was even more confusing. It would make sense if it was mind control and someone was manipulating them like pieces of a game, but... that conflicted with what she had noticed only a minute before.

Just what the hell was going on around here?

At any rate, she wouldn't have a chance to gather any more information about the whole matter. Suddenly, right out of the clear blue sky, a pair of red lasers came down, hitting the creature's back and shattering the ring. Who- ah, yes... Miyako, with Wizardmon right there beside her.

Sometimes it seemed like the wizard was a more valuable asset to them than even the digidestined... but that was yet another matter best saved for another day. The main enemy was down and much of the gostumon horde had been neutralized. Time to make their great escape.

"Everyone, head to the gate!"

Not that the command really needed to be given this time. Most of them were already moving before she said a word. Only their partners were waiting, holding the line until the children got far enough from danger, then they ran, and they didn't stop for anything.

Hikari knew the gotsumon weren't fast enough to keep up, so perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise when they ended up not even trying to pursue the children at all. Still... the oddities she noticed before had gotten her thinking, and now her brain was working overtime to try to pick up every tiny thing it could about their behavior so she could figure out what was going on.

It was far, _far_ too soon to jump to any conclusions about what was going on or how they should approach the war, but Hikari had a hunch... something she couldn't quite place. This whole situation seemed just... off. Like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. The odd part was that she almost felt like she knew the answer... like it was sitting right there at the edge of her mind and she just couldn't remember it.

Regardless... the ringed enemies were retreating, the freed digimon were fleeing into the rocks, maybe to find a place to hide or escape to, and the children seemed to have a clear path for an easy escape. Of course, she wasn't going to make that call just yet... too easy to jinx with a last-second attack from the Kaiser. It wasn't until they were finally at the bottom of Digmon's path and reunited all together in front of the terminal that she let herself breathe a sigh of relief.

Then she noticed Iori, eyes toward the horizon rather than on any of them, even though he had been the most passionate about this mission when it started. Maybe it was too early for that after all...

"Iori, what is it?"

He said nothing, but his hand rose to point to the target in question. Not an enemy... something on the horizon, up at the top of another distant mesa. A glimmer of light... not moving, though. That was... wait, was that... another tower?

"There's one _here_ too?"

Iori finally turned as Daisuke spoke, eyes reflecting his surprise and confusion. He didn't know what that was, but apparently it wasn't the only one of its kind...

"They're everywhere."

Wizardmon answered as Miyako came down to land beside the others and dismount her partner, practically throwing herself at Hikari to give her a hug. It didn't matter that the other two had the stronger partners... seeing Hikari there was the biggest relief of all. Just knowing that the girl was nearby helped make her feel more safe. Enough so that she didn't even bother looking toward Wizardmon as he continued.

"They're the mark of the Kaiser. If there's land that he or she controls, it almost certainly has a spire built in it. If there are any exceptions, I haven't heard of them. I don't know what purpose they serve as nobody has managed to destroy one yet... perhaps they're just symbols of the Kaiser's vanity. A sign of their control of a region... but I have a hunch that they're more important than that."

Gatomon hissed, recalling Myotismon and the way he had seized control of Odaiba, sector by sector. He didn't leave markers in the form of towers, but he had other methods... feeding on the innocents who had been left behind was one of his favored methods of celebrating a new conquest.

"If everyone wasn't exhausted, I'd say we should go and tear that damn thing right now..."

"Patience. Everything must happen in good order. It is only our first day and we already have three new digidestined, each with partners and weapons, and the resistance has made it to the safety of the human world. If we continue making progress like this, the war won't last long. For now, however, it's best that we rest and start planning our defense of the digital world in earnest."

Gatomon nodded, still displeased but not looking to argue. He was right... compared to the first war this was downright easy, and if they continued progressing like they were they'd probably be rolling up the Kaiser's forces by the end of the week.

Finally, exhausted from all their combined ordeals and not looking to have another ambush arrive, the children drew together with their partners and opened the gate, heading back to the human world... back to Hunter HQ. One battle was over, but their troubles weren't yet at their end. As the gate lit up to open the way back to their world, Hikari only had one thought hanging in her mind.

Boy... Taichi was going to be _pissed_.


	5. Home

REMINDER: Check the top of my profile page for a link to the Digital Hazard forum, made by Swords and Roses.

A/N: Laaadies and geeentlemen! That's right, you're not imagining things. I actually managed to get this chapter up in less than a week. Woo! I'm actually getting pretty excited about this. My speed has picked up dramatically this week and I'm churning out pages faster than I ever thought I could before. Despite being one of the longer chapters thus far, I managed to get this one done in only three days (plus time spent editing, spell checking, etc)

Now... since I noticed that most of you aren't really using the forum much, I've decided that I'm going to temporarily co-opt it to use to start keeping track of my weekly progress, at least until more people start posting there. I'll also be posting any news about delays, side projects, future books and the like, that way I won't be taking up so much space at the top of my chapters with notes.

Also, just as a teaser, the next chapter should be a treat for all you theory-mongers out there who are looking for clues to the many mysteries floating around. Not a whole lot of answers yet, but a few big questions are going to be spelled out with greater clarity. It'd probably a good time to hop on that forum and start chatting over your ideas, either about the big secrets or just how the plot is going to develop in general.

Chapter 5: Home

**Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.**

Hikari instinctively winced upon the return to the human world, expecting Taichi to be waiting there to chew them out as soon as they arrived. She was surprised – somewhat happily – to find that he wasn't anywhere in sight. They hadn't returned to the command room but to somewhere else in the base. Hm... that was odd. Shouldn't they have come right back through the terminal they left from? Then again, there were hundreds of individual computers in the Hunter base, so maybe their digivices just got confused as to which one to travel to.

"This isn't the command room..."

Daisuke had apparently taken up the role of captain obvious. Hikari didn't much care, though. Besides, Miyako and Iori had never been in this base before, so they were likely disoriented simply from the fact that they were standing in the middle of a high-security military complex. Let Daisuke hold their hand for a minute. Hikari was more focused on figuring out where they actually were...

"This looks familiar."

She glanced over to Wizardmon questioningly. Familiar? She wasn't so sure... they were in a fairly large room, on a slightly lowered platform, surrounded by a few computer terminals. There were Hunter personnel at a few of them, but they weren't paying attention to the children for some reason. Honestly, it looked like a miniature command room that had been retrofitted-

Hey, wait a minute!

"...SDZ?"

"_Former_ SDZ."

A familiar voice came from the direction of Katsu- of Takeru's old office, though it wasn't the voice she had expected. No Taichi. Instead, she was greeted by the co-leader of the original digidestined.

"After it was disbanded at the end of the war, they stripped down the command room and refitted it to be used by us. That's what Taichi said, anyway."

"What's SDZ?"

Miyako asked, but Hikari made a motion to silence her. Not now... they could get briefed later. Right now she needed to figure out what all was going on.

"Yamato, what are you doing here? Where's Taichi?"

He shrugged. His expression was oddly... somber? No, that wasn't it. He just seemed... tired, maybe. Hikari could understand why, of course. He'd been helping his parents take care of their newborn for the past couple months, so that was likely wearing on him.

She suspected there was more to it than just that, though... Yamato was the other child she'd not heard a thing about since the end of the war even though, unlike Takeru, he had been home the entire time. While everyone else had gone back to trying to live normal lives, he had remained a recluse. Everything that happened with Takeru still weighed on him, no doubt. Even more so since the boy had pretty much fallen off the map since... well, since the last time he talked to Hikari, actually.

"He's doing the officer thing. He put me here to wait for the 'idiots' to get back."

Hikari didn't so much as bat an eyelash at that last comment. She already knew exactly what Taichi thought of their recklessness. As for the others, their reactions were mixed. Daisuke crossed his arms, stubbornly determined to stand up for his own decision. He did what he had to do and he damn well wasn't going to apologize for it. Miyako winced a bit. Yeah... she knew it was stupid, and it certainly hadn't gone as well as they'd hoped it might. Still, she hoped they might be able to make a case for why it was necessary.

Then there was Iori, the one who had been at the head of their crazy plan. He just stared ahead blankly, waiting for whatever came next. Like Hikari, he knew what they'd think of him... however, he didn't have the benefit of being a generation one child, nor of being the sibling of a Hunter officer. They weren't likely to listen to him if he tried to make a case, so he'd just take whatever was thrown his way.

Hikari wanted to ask about the Hunters and what 'the officer thing' implied given that, last she'd heard, Taichi's superior was still busy talking to the director and the other high-ranking people in Hunter Command. However, she had to tend to what she had on hand... they'd learn about the big picture later. Her team was more important right now.

"And? What are you going to do with us?"

Yamato shrugged again, though this time it was less from fatigue and more from general apathy.

"Nothing. Taichi's done worse more than a few times... he ordered that the network be locked down after you returned, though, so you won't be going back to the digital world until you get his approval."

Hikari raised an eyebrow, glancing over to the Hunters in the room, all of which were still ignoring them. Yeah, they'd follow her brother's orders, no question there. However, the children had some help from the outside as well... someone who could slip through the network and open a gate for them with ease.

"How long do you think _that_ will last?"

She looked back to Yamato who gave a dismissive shrug. Clearly he knew the order didn't mean that much if they were really determined to violate it...

"At least until everyone gets back to Odaiba. After that..."

His voice trailed off and he stopped to think for a moment. Things were so different from the last war that it was hard to know what was going to happen next. With most of them not being able to fight, they'd be stuck in mostly advisory roles, at least until they could figure out how to get their partners to digivolve again. Although...

"Honestly, it'll probably be up to Koushiro."

He'd been the main adviser during the first war anyway, so his was one of the few positions that wasn't changing much.

The sound of a few low growls coming in unison from the digimon's stomachs put a stop to that conversation for the time being. All the digimon looked slightly surprised, and in the case of Hawkmon slightly embarrassed as well. It was hard to look noble and proper when your stomach was growling like a lion...

They hadn't really thought about food while in the digital world. So much focus had been on the fighting that they'd all but forgotten they were hungry. Hawkmon had been able to eat a little during their trip to the second terminal, but that didn't last long...

Seems the new children were in for their first lesson about wartime procedures. First and foremost, keep your digimon fed. The more they fought, the faster they burned through their sustenance, and with only three digimon handling what double that number had done during the first war, they'd likely need to be fed quite a bit more often.

Fortunately, Yamato had been expecting this and motioned for all the children to come back with him into Takeru's old office. As they soon found, the space had been converted into a small lounge of sorts, with several couches and... _two_ refrigerators?

Well, at least they weren't going to go hungry any time soon. While the others went to eat and lie down for a while, Hikari headed back out to the main room to get a better look at all that they had done with the place.

It was oddly empty and quiet compared to the rest of the base. The only notable items were the computer terminals on the walls and a single system in the center, sitting at the edge of the lowered platform that used to have the tactical map of Odaiba back when Takeru was still running the show. Of course, back then it had been a raised platform instead. She wasn't initially sure why it had undergone such a massive facelift, but looking over everything now, she was starting to get an idea.

Yamato soon followed her out of the lounge area and she was able to inquire to him about it. Before he had said that it was retrofitted for use by the digidestined, and now she understood what he meant. The lower platform was for their partners, particularly their evolved forms. If they had to pass through the gate while evolved, they needed a fair amount of space to stand in. This would be where they would be departing from and returning to for most future missions, like the digimon equivalent of a helipad. A... digipad?

There were only a few Hunters in the room as well, all on one side of the room, and a number of unused terminals on the opposite end. Eight by her count... and she knew what those were for even before Yamato explained it. One for each of the children... though they would need to add a few for the new children as well. The Hunters were only there for tech support and record keeping. There was still a fair amount of empty space after that, though she figured they might eventually find uses for that space later on.

This whole room had been designated solely for their use, which meant that they would be the ones to determine what all filled it. They'd be able to customize it to their liking and turn it into their own command and coordination room. Of course, centralizing all their operations in one place meant that the Hunters would likely want to keep them there and that they wouldn't necessarily be welcome in the other parts of the base without special authorization.

Figures. They saved the world and they were still shoved into a corner to keep them all from getting in the way of the professionals. Oh well... at least they were getting the military to supply them this time. Better than having them roam the digital world, foraging for food between battles.

Hikari went to the children's personal terminals and found one to get to work on, checking what she could on the Hunter network. Not much there... the computer had access to all public networks, but the Hunter systems were still secured. On a hunch she checked her old ID and password, finding that they were still valid. However, her level of access had been massively reduced since the SDZ days.

According to the system, she was listed as basic level civilian authorization, which basically meant that she could look at anything that was public but nothing more. She idly wondered if that was done initially after the war or within the past few hours, since they rushed off into the digital world for their reckless heroics...

She had enough access to see the current official state of Hunter affairs, though there wasn't much to see. The Japanese army was set at standard emergency level V-4. The rest of the world was at level 9, which was the same as saying idle status. So far none of the other Hunter armies around the world had been alerted to the threat from the Kaiser...

That seemed a little strange to her, but it was yet another one of the big mysteries they'd have to get answered later. Soon enough she found herself facing an even bigger mystery, which only grew by the minute.

Where was her brother? She spent a good half hour looking over the records in search of anything even remotely useful and he was still away.

Around that time, Iori finally emerged from the lounge to come over and sit by her and ask what she was doing. He was curious about the state of things as well, though she had painfully little information to offer.

Apparently Miyako and Daisuke had both fallen asleep, along with their partners. Daisuke had made two runs to the digital world to fight, and Miyako had been fleeing for an hour to get to the second terminal. It made sense that they'd both be burned out. Yamato had also left and returned in that time, checking on the new children and talking to a few of the Hunters for a bit since he apparently had nothing else to do.

Yet still Taichi was nowhere in sight. It finally got to the point where Hikari went to approach Yamato about it, determined to make _something_ happen if only so she wouldn't have to keep sitting and wondering anymore.

"Are we authorized to leave?"

Yamato raised an eyebrow. Clearly not the first question he expected to hear from her. He more expected something directly about Taichi's absence, and she knew he did. To hell with that, though... she wasn't going to play that game. The fact that nothing had been mentioned about him even after being back for so long meant he was deliberately being quiet. Either it was because of Hunter protocol or because he was angry, but she wasn't going to waste time on him either way. They had more important things to do.

"We have three new digidestined that disappeared right out of school. They all have families that are probably wondering where they are, and they need to know what's going on. If there's nothing left for us to do here, I'm going to request transportation to get them all home."

Yamato nodded. The implication was clear enough, and he wasn't going to argue. He knew better than to stand in the middle of a quarrel between two Yagami siblings. With a quick motion he caught the attention of one of the Hunter techs, motioning back to Hikari, knowing they'd likely heard everything.

"Take care of getting the transportation. If there's any issue with the officers, send it to me. We have a lot to do before the rest of the digidestined get here, so let's not waste any time."

Hikari wasn't really sure what he meant by a lot to do... but then, maybe he was just saying things to get the others moving faster. In her mind, there wasn't much _to_ do until the others arrived. At any rate, she turned and headed back to the lounge to wake the others up, quickly finding that Wizardmon wasn't there anymore. Odd... when did he go? Not that she necessarily would have been able to _see_ him leave if he didn't want her to...

Fortunately, when Hikari got back out to the command room she found that their request was approved. No red tape to deal with today. Taichi was still giving the silent treatment, but she'd deal with that later on. Besides, he'd have to start talking once the others got back.

All of the children were eventually loaded up into one of the Hunter vehicles and taken home. However, for some reason Hikari found that she was being taken home separately. Not only that, the others were taken in a jeep while she was riding... an APC? Okay, _what_?

"What's this about?"

When she approached the Hunter waiting at the wheel, he seemed oddly oblivious to whatever the issue might have been.

"This was what was requested, ma'am."

"Requested by _who_? Tai- Lieutenant Yagami?"

"No ma'am, independent. Whoever requested transportation for you."

The hell? _She_ requested the transportation! She didn't need a freaking APC, either. They weren't transporting a whole platoon-

Waaaaait a minute...

She requested, the techies sent that request via the computers to their superiors, that got passed down the line... most of it digital, inside the network. Inside the _network_.

She nodded and climbed into the back along with Gatomon, waiting to see where they took her. Little surprise, they didn't take her straight back home. Instead they went first to... the school. Within walking distance of her home, at least. Besides that, it was a neutral site, perfect for maintaining the anonymity of a certain someone...

Stepping out the back, Hikari glanced around, seeing nobody except the occasional person on the street, watching her and wondering what was up with the military vehicle parked right there in front of the school.

"Wizardmon?"

"You're good."

On cue, he uncloaked and came into view right beside the vehicle. Hikari heard something else nearby... it sounded like movement, but she couldn't see anyone. By now she'd figured out what the deal was with this, though. Heading to the driver, she made a motion to stop him so that he didn't drive off.

"Were you given any other orders?"

"No ma'am. We were just told you drop you off here."

"Then you have orders from me. You're to take Wizardmon back to the Hunter base. When you get there, inform your superiors that the resistance has arrived."

The man appeared confused, but he didn't question the order. Good soldier. Returning to the back, she noted Wizardmon loitering near the ramp leading into the vehicle, and the sound of footsteps moving into the vehicle. His invisible comrades...

"Got help from Ken?"

"Of course. He wants to maintain his anonymity until tomorrow so that he can take care of several projects. Something about saving them from the Hunter's terrible security measures. He didn't say much more than that."

Hikari nodded, pondering what that could have meant and finding herself slightly perturbed at having so many damn questions come up at once. Between the Kaiser, Taichi and Ken she had no idea what the hell anyone was doing. At least she'd start answering a few of those questions once everyone arrived, but still... it was annoying to see everyone acting with such secrecy, especially without knowing their reasons.

Once the rest of the digimon were loaded up, Wizardmon climbed into the vehicle and soon enough they were away. Hikari then turned to head home.

Home... to face perhaps an even bigger challenge than talking to Taichi. Telling her parents that their children were going back to war...

* * *

Daisuke wasn't sure what to do once he got home. As soon as he was dropped off his mind started running through every possible scenario, unsure of how to tell his family that he was now one of the chosen children and he was fighting in the digital world.

As he headed upstairs to his apartment he noted the reactions of people as he passed, both children and adults. Not an eye missed the presence of Veemon walking beside him, and at least a few people had phones that, he assumed, they were using to take pictures with. By the next morning the whole city – hell, the whole _world_ – would know that he was digidestined...

That was fine, though. So long as his family didn't find out before he got in the door he was okay with everyone else knowing. Not like it had caused any major issues for the other children who were now traveling around the world as celebrities.

"I'm home!"

He called as he stepped inside, noting the absence of his parents. Only his sister was there, which was odd... and he could tell in an instant that she was angry, which was a rare thing, even given all her troubles.

"Daisuke! Where have you been?"

Veemon waited back by the door, hidden behind a counter so that she couldn't see him. Not that he was scared, but she was apparently pissed off, and he figured it was best that didn't show his face until she had cooled down a little bit. Giant scythe-armed insects? No big deal. Angry big sisters? Nooooo way he was facing one of those.

"Um... outside? I had a lot of stuff going on today."

"Why didn't you call and tell mom and dad? They were worried about you all day!"

"Wha- huh? Why? Jun, I've been gone all day before and nobody's freaked out like this. What's the big deal?"

Jun stopped her furious shouting long enough to give him a confused look, like he was asking the dumbest question in the world.

"...seriously? You have _no_ idea what's going on?"

Well, he knew about a _lot_ of things that were going on, but apparently not the ones she was talking about...

"Dai, it's been all over the news and the net. Hunters are moving all over the city. Vehicles, soldiers... there's rumors they're doing checks on the barriers to be ready to turn them back on. How the hell can you not know? _Everyone's_ talking about it. Apparently you can even see them all out there on the street if you just take a look around. What have you been _doing_ today?"

Hunters... of course. Everyone had to know what was happening by now, or... wait. The Hunters weren't fighting anything. They _couldn't_. The enemy was over in the digital world, where they couldn't reach it...

"What are they saying about it?"

Jun apparently didn't notice that he just ignored her question, but then he appeared to be deep in thought... no surprise since he studied the war so much. She just figured he was so distracted by the news of the Hunters that the rest just got blanked out.

"Officially, they're just prepping for training exercises, but nobody actually believes that. Nobody knows what it's really for, though. There's no news of digimon attacks anywhere."

Not in the human world, anyway... nobody knew the truth yet, and likely wouldn't for a while. They probably wanted to keep the work of the new digidestined as quiet-

Wait a minute. The new digidestined. People and the pictures. They were going to know about him soon enough... along with Miyako and Iori. If they learned about the new digidestined, they'd know something was happening, so those cover stories would be useless. So why... wait. Ahh... yes, of course. Dummy, it was totally obvious...

"They're telling the truth. They're just training."

They didn't know if and when the Kaiser would be arriving in the human world. If the digidestined failed to keep the fighting contained in the digital world, they wanted to be ready to fight back.

"How would _you_ know?"

Jun was skeptical, of course, and why wouldn't she be? Obviously she didn't know about him being a digidestined, but she didn't really know about him being friends with Hikari either. He'd never told her or his parents about that... before this he had wanted to join the Hunters once he got old enough, and he didn't want them suspecting that he might eventually be going off to war.

Things were bad enough after the end of the last one. Jun... one couldn't tell just by looking anymore, but the wheelchair in the corner and the crutches sitting near her were a testament to her troubles. She was lucky to have survived the damage done by Myotismon's sweep across the city, and doubly lucky that none of her injuries were permanent. She was slowly making a recover, but she still struggled at times.

Those injuries had more or less brought an end to her chances of being a track and field star, and were a big part of the reason Daisuke took the war so personally. He'd lost less than many people, but he also had to live with the aftermath every day, seeing his sister in pain, fighting through her recovery inch by inch...

Sighing and trying to shake those thoughts clear from his head, Daisuke grabbed the digivice from his waist that Jun clearly hadn't yet noticed and held it up to her.

"Jun. This is a digivice."

Her eyes went wide. Even more so when Veemon finally stepped out from behind the counter. A digivice in her brother's hand, and a digimon standing in the middle of their apartment. His absence that day... her mind suddenly clicked the pieces together and she understood, though she was still somewhat in disbelief until her brother's removed all doubt with his next words.

"I know... because I fought the things they're all getting ready for."

* * *

Miyako wasn't really worried what her family would think of her being a digidestined. Sure, there was danger and fighting, but that wasn't her primary interest. After the... _bees_... she found her excitement at the thought of fighting with the other children waning slightly. After getting stranded it pretty much dissolved.

She'd still fight, of course, but she was much more interested in studying the digimon and the digital world as a whole. She had always been, and being in the Hunter base just reinforced that. What's more, her idol, Koushiro, was coming back to Odaiba and they also had that mini-genius Ken helping them on the side... just thinking the sheer quantity of knowledge that she'd be able to siphon out of them was making her giddy.

Of course, she'd still have to tell her family about all of it. Fortunately, she already had her story prepared.

Oddly, there were quite a few more shoppers in the Ai-Mart than usual, especially for this time of day. There seemed to be something of a rush to buy... food? Glancing around, she noticed the same thing in every bag and cart. Food, food, food... most of it canned or otherwise packaged or processed... people were so distracted by shopping that few even noticed the fact that she was walking through the store with a big bird digimon perched on her shoulder. Those that did said nothing, though... they just stared with that sort of quiet disbelief that one might see on a TV show.

Her brother at the counter didn't notice her, either, as he was too preoccupied checking everyone out. Probably best to leave him... moving on, Miyako headed to the back room, searching for one of her sisters or possibly her parents, though the latter were probably busy given how many people there were in the store.

"Hey, I'm back."

She wasn't sure who or where she was calling to, but fortunately her sister Momoe heard her and quickly popped out from behind one of the shelves.

"Miyako! Where have you b-"

As she came into view she stopped, eyes clearly set on the bird that most of the others she passed had yet to notice.

"...what is _that_?"

"My digimon."

Well, _that_ had all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Fortunately, Hawkmon himself was there to soften the blow a bit with his usual civility.

"My name is Hawkmon. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Momie just stared. She must have stood like that, in silent shock, for the better part of an hour... or maybe it was just a few seconds. Miyako liked to _think_ that it would have been an hour, though, if not for the fact that Momoe was probably still in rush mode from having just been busy restocking the store.

"...you have a _digimon_."

"Yup. And a digivice."

Miyako picked it up to show it off. Fancy new type, and with bright red edge to boot! Bright red being, of course, the best color in the spectrum.

"...since _when_?"

"Ummm... late this morning, I think?"

"So the same time that everything happened with the Hunters."

That part caught Miyako off guard for a second. The Hunters? Well, she knew there were doing stuff, but... she hadn't known there was anything extra special going on. At least not anything that people all over Odaiba would be talking about.

"Umm... probably? What happened with the Hunters?"

Momoe proceeded to explain what little there was to say about it. Troop movements, rumors of reserve troops becoming active, of technicians double-checking the barriers and other city defenses... it was all over the TV and net. The former more or less kept to the official story that there was a major training exercise taking place, but the net was, as always, a nest of rumors and theories moving at high speed. Momoe herself had barely been able to keep up with it all. Every hour it seemed like there was a whole slew of new information and theories popping up from people around the world... even though it was only the Hunters in Odaiba that were becoming active.

...yeah, that last part didn't make much sense.

"That's weird..."

Miyako muttered, recalling everything that had happened that day, particularly the conversations with Koushiro, Taichi, and the others.

"I don't know why they're doing all that. The Kaiser even trying to get _into_ our world. At least... I don't _think_ so..."

"Who's the _Kaiser_?"

Oh, right. She hadn't actually explained anything yet.

"Er... long story?"

Momoe sighed and shook her head, stepping forward to usher Miyako out of the room and toward the stairs.

"Miyako, go upstairs. Go back to your room and just... wait, okay? Wait for me, I'll come up later."

"But I can help stock-"

"Miyako, _please_. We're super busy right now and if anyone else sees your digimon they'll either freak or get distracted, or... I don't know. Please, just stay out of sight for a while. I'll get everyone together and bring them up in a bit, once the rush ends."

Miyako sighed and nodded. She didn't like it, but she knew Momoe had a point. Still gotta think about the store... it was their livelihood, after all. They couldn't take care of it if everyone was distracted by the news that she was digidestined now. It made her feel a little bit like a burden, but... ah hell, whatever. She'd fought off a swarm of bees, saved her friends from a giant lizard... she was still a badass. No moping for her.

On the way up, though, she got to thinking. Food... so many people buying so much. Were they expecting another war to break out? They were probably stocking up on canned goods for such an emergency... one that most likely wasn't even going to occur.

Oh well, she wasn't going to complain. More business for them, after all.

* * *

The uncertainty Iori had outright ignored during his charge into the digital world came back full force as he approached his family's home. Slowly but surely the realization came over him that he would have to explain... _all_ of this. Firstly to his mother, of course, but more importantly to his grandfather, Chikara.

He hadn't been afraid of facing down Taichi. He hadn't been afraid of meeting the Kaiser in a fight... was he afraid _now_, though. Not of danger or of anger, but more simply of... disappointment. Thinking back, he could see clearly so many things he had done wrong and could have done better, and every one of them terrified him for the thought that his grandfather might learn about them. What would he think...

Iori didn't bother to take note of the people around and their reactions to Armadillomon. The truth would come out eventually. It wasn't his responsibility to deal with all of them. Chances were good that the Hunters would handle that side of things for them anyway, so Iori would probably never have to face any of the people who wondered about these new digidestined children.

When he got up to his family's apartment and headed in, he noted his mother was busy in the kitchen. He wanted to talk to her, to explain what was going on, but... he didn't know that he was yet sure what to say. He was questioning everything he had done now... and he knew he wouldn't stop until he could hear from his grandfather that he'd done the right thing... or conversely, know for certain that he had done wrong.

Rather than stop to talk, he kept walking, heading back to his grandfather's room to knock on the door before inching it open.

"Grandpa, do you have a minute? I need to talk to you... it's important."

The man was sitting in his room as he often did, reading up on something or other. He read a lot... being retired gave him a lot of time, and what wasn't spent practicing or training kendo usually became study time. Glancing up, he couldn't yet see Armadillomon who was hiding to the side, which was probably the only reason he smiled like he did.

"Of course. Come in."

His smile and generally friendly demeanor usually put the boy at ease, but now it made him dread even more what was coming, for fear that it was going to turn into something much more grim. Well... no reason to put it off. He waved for Armadillomon to step in, following in afterward and closing the door behind him.

Chikara raised an eyebrow upon seeing the digimon, noting Iori's demeanor as he stepped in. He also noticed the device hanging at his waist. Hmm... interesting. It didn't take long to piece together what was happening, but still he chose to ask, as much for Iori's sake as anything.

"Hm? You are a digimon?"

Armadillomon, of course, didn't feel nervous at all. He was far too relaxed and carefree to let the worries of home life slow down his cheerful attitude.

"Yup! I'm Armadillomon. Nice ta meet you, dagyaa."

"Then I suppose you're here to tell me that you are digidestined."

His eyes rose to the boy, neither pleased nor upset. The weight of this discovery wasn't lost on him, but even so... the way in which Iori responded wasn't quite what he would have expected, leading him to believe there was something else going on... something that made the boy more upset than he otherwise should have been.

Iori nodded, taking a breath to try to calm the shaking in his hands, though it didn't help much.

"I... yes. I just... it all happened today when I was at school. It... there's something happening in the digital world, and I..."

"Iori, calm down. Sit. Explain to me exactly what happened."

Iori sighed heavily and nodded, moving to sit across the small table from his grandfather. Armadillomon moved to his side, sensing his worry. He wasn't sure _why_ Iori was so worried, but he figured the boy could work it out on his own. He was just there for support.

Oh, and food. Even though he had just eaten, when Iori's grandfather offered him a little yogurt packet he didn't refuse, and after he tasted it... dear _god_.

"I'm in heeeaven~..."

Iori shook his head lightly. Well, at least his partner's odd behavior helped calm his nerves a bit. Taking another deep breath, he began his tale, starting at the beginning, back at the school. He told his grandfather everything, including all he saw from the odd boy, Ken, and his previous suspicions of him. He was much less suspicious now, of course, but... he had to hold to total transparency, otherwise he would feel guilt on top of the worry he already held.

All the while Chikara said nothing. He simply sat and listened, offering Armadillomon a second yogurt packet when he finished the first one. No risk of running out – he had dozens more.

Then Iori reached the part about Miyako becoming trapped in the digital world due to his mistake. He well expected the man's demeanor to change at that, but still nothing. He was as calm as ever. Iori's silence lasted long enough that eventually it took a prod from his partner to get him talking again. Now to the bad part of the story.

The rest of the story was blurted out quickly, though not lacking in any of its grim details. Iori's reckless charge into the digital world, Daisuke and Hikari following him... the fight in which he was unable to help them directly... his gaze quickly fell to the table, unable to look his grandfather in the eye anymore. When he reached the end, their return to the human world, he fell silent. The rest was just... technical. It didn't much matter compared to everything that had come before.

Then, finally, Chikara spoke.

"You are worried that I am upset. That I do not approve of you being digidestined, of putting yourself in danger as you did."

And likely more, but he wasn't going to ask every question that came to mind. Iori would say all that he needed to hear eventually.

Iori didn't look up. He was still and silent until another nudge from his digimon got him talking again.

"I... feel like I failed. Like I let someone down. I tried my best, but..."

"The digimon you wanted to rescue are safe, correct? Your friend, Miyako, is safe as well..."

"But I could have done _better_! If I hadn't run away the first time, she never would have gotten trapped! I... I feel like I'm getting left behind. Miyako and Daisuke, they can run in fearlessly and take on anything, but I... I can't. I get... scared. I have to work hard just to keep up with them."

"Hmmm..."

Chikara paused, eyes closing as he took a moment to ponder everything Iori had said, to weigh it in his mind. He understood all the boy's worries. In the field of battle one mustn't hesitate. One must always be ready to counter present danger. And yet...

"...in that case, I agree. You _did_ fail."

Iori was actually stunned. He wasn't used to his grandfather suddenly switching gears like that. One moment he was supportive and now he was agreeing that there was a mistake made. It also made him that much more worried that he had disappointed the man. Fortunately, Chikara gave him no time to answer and simply continued.

"I do not know this Daisuke, and I know little of your friend, Miyako. From what you tell me, however, they are each bold in their own ways. Chargers, ever ready for a challenge. However... _you_ are not."

O... kay? Iori was now getting confused. He wasn't sure exactly what his grandfather was correcting him on. Was he saying he should be _more_ bold or less...?

"Consider the seasons, Iori. There is a time for each of them. A time for planting, growing, harvest, and rest. The same is true of you and your friends. Let me ask you... of each of you, which one of you is summer?"

It wasn't strange for Iori to hear his grandfather using metaphors. It was a common thing for him. He liked drawing comparisons, especially to nature. As for the question itself, though... summer? That was hard to say. Summer was heat, of growth... both Miyako and Daisuke had some hot-headed tendencies. Although, between the two of them...?

"Daisuke."

"And what is Miyako?"

Miyako. Not summer... not quite like Daisuke. Dynamic, though. Active, always wanting to move forward. Recalling his grandfather's words about the seasons... hers wasn't simply stubborn determination, but stubborn... optimism.

"Spring."

"Then what benefit is it if you were spring or summer? You already have them with you. What you need to be is something else entirely. Something to balance them. Remember your training, Iori. Remember the principle of yin and yang. There must always be balance."

Iori fell silent for a minute, taking in everything that was being said. So his failure was in charging, of trying to lead the way when it wasn't his place. He wasn't _supposed_ to push forward, but to hold them back... to be as he was with Miyako when searching for her digimon – the voice of reason, to help keep a steady head on everyone's shoulders.

"Then I'm..."

His voice trailed off. Autumn or winter? Autumn was a calm time. A time when the world slowed down, before slipping into the slumber of the winter, but... he also knew that it was the time of the harvest. The time for the sickle, of reaping everything that had been planted.

Winter, however, was the time of rest. Of quiet, of contemplation. A time to prepare for the next spring...

"Winter... and Hikari is Autumn."

Hikari... the one that so many knew of but few knew in earnest. He'd talked to her before in school and listened to Miyako's countless conversations, so he knew her better than most. Still... now he had seen a side of her during their second mission that slightly worried him. She was cold, sharp... she was the proverbial reaper. The one who brought the end to the year of growth and readied it for the cold of winter.

Of course, this was all just general observations, not rules. Each of them had their own tenancies that fit in and out of the metaphor his grandfather had described. Like yin and yang, each held a drop of the other within it. None of them were just one thing... but the concept of balance was clear enough, regardless. It wasn't Iori's job to keep up with the others in what they did best. His only responsibility was to always do what _he_ did best, and what the others were perhaps more lacking in.

Iori shifted abruptly and made a quick, formal bow in the fashion that he most often did during his kendo training.

"I understand. Thank you, Sensei."

"You are very welcome. And Iori..."

The man quickly mutted, stopping the boy just as he was preparing to head for the door.

"Remember... though you are digidestined, you are still my grandson. Do not think that your friends are your only allies in this conflict. Your mother and I are here for you, and we always will be."

For once, Iori smiled. He was often so serious about things, especially regarding this conflict he had just been pulled into, that he often forgot about all the people he had behind him. Yes, it would still be a hard struggle... but it wasn't just the Hunters and the other children that were helping him. At the end of the day, he could always come home to a place of safety... here. That would make it a bit easier to face the trials in the days and weeks to come.

"Thank you, grandpa."

With that he departed, off to go speak to his mother and tell her about what had happened. He couldn't keep it a secret from her, after all... though she might not like to hear it, it was better that she heard it from him than from the Hunters or any of the other children later on...

* * *

All in all, Miyako's family was handling the news far better than she expected. They were all generally quiet, but there wasn't any moments of panic like she had expected. That was a plus.

Of course, she had also explained the condition of the Kaiser, as best they knew... and all they really knew what that he, she, or it was attacking the digital world and trying to take over. There weren't any signs that the attacks would be coming to the human world, so they weren't about to have a repeat of Myotismon any time soon.

As for Miyako herself... well, they were clearly less than pleased about the idea of her fighting in the digital world, but she had been smart enough to leave out all the worst details like, oh... the fact that most of the original children couldn't fight anymore, or that the Kaiser could apparently mind control digimon with those freaky silver rings.

"So... what are you actually going to be _doing_? I know what happened during the war, but... things seem to be really different this time."

Good question from her dad. Unfortunately, she didn't have a good answer for him. She didn't know either, and she had a feeling that neither did the original kids. It would take time to work out their strategy for this new war...

"Research, probably... _hopefully_. Koushiro Izumi is coming back to Odaiba, and there's another kid who knows a lot, too... this is basically a dream come true if I can just get a chance to pick their brains about everything they know."

"So you're not actually going to be fighting much?"

"Not if I have anything to say about it. I mean... I'll fight if I have to, but I'd rather study what the Kaiser's doing and advise the other kids on how to fight back."

Her father nodded and relaxed a bit. That seemed to satisfy him and her mother both. Their main concern was for Miyako's safety, after all, and though being a digidestined was a dangerous vocation in general, it seemed that the new children weren't going to be facing quite the trials that the originals had.

A few other questions bounced around, mostly regarding the Kaiser and what he, she, it was after, but she had to answer that she honestly had no clue. Day one of the war... they weren't exactly being smothered by intel yet.

Once the conversation tapered off, Miyako returned to her room to rest, finding herself oddly relieved that things had gone over so well with her family. She'd come in with confidence, of course, expecting her story would sell. However, she'd always had that nagging doubt... what if it really didn't? What if they got really worried or angry? No reason to ask now, of course, because they didn't, and that pleased her immensely.

Of course, not _everything_ went over perfectly...

"Liar."

Miyako stopped and spun around to find Momoe standing right there behind her in the room, closing the door as she spoke. She had been fairly calm for the earlier conversation, but now she was clearly upset. That... didn't happen often.

"What do you mean? I didn't lie about anything..."

"No, you just bent the truth so far that it was upside down by the end."

Er... hrm. Okay, she couldn't really argue with that. She might have asked just where she had done so, but she was pretty sure there was no point. Momoe had seen through the entire charade, or at least most of it...

"So how much of that last part was true? About the research?"

"Well... all of it. I mean, I've been studying this stuff since last year. This is the best thing I could hope for."

"And the part about not fighting?"

Uhhh...

Miyako's expression gave away most everything that her sister needed to see. Momoe couldn't figure out the specifics, like the fact that there were only three of them who _could_ fight and thus making it pretty much impossible for her to sit any of the missions out, but she didn't need any of those. She just needed to know that there was danger, and it was a lot worse than Miyako tried to claim.

Momoe sighed. She was in a frustrating position. She should have gone out of that room and just told her family right out what was going on, but that would just worry them. It wasn't like they could stop her anyway. If they tried, the Hunters could just come and get her... not like they'd be able to convince her not to go.

"Be honest... how dangerous is this, _really_?"

How dangerous? How was _she_ supposed to know? It was, literally, her first day! She didn't know a thing about any of this stuff. She was still trying to figure out how to be a proper digidestined, and the danger came from the Kaiser, who they didn't know a _thing_ about.

"...I don't know. I was serious about knowing nothing about the Kaiser, but... _well_..."

There was _one_ thing that might indicate what the danger could be, but she _really_ didn't want to say that. Most people would panic if they knew this, and... hell, it was probably classified anyway. Could she really tell her sister about it...?

Then again, did she really have much choice now?

"...the other digidestined can't fight."

The look on Momoe's face would have been a perfect fit for a horror movie. Thank god she didn't scream like in one...

"..._what?_"

"I said they can't fight. Their digimon can't evolve... they can't even get into the digital world without our new digivices to help them. Right now... it's just the three of us. Four, if you count Hikari... and I'm pretty sure she _does_ count herself."

"Oh my _god_, Miyako..."

Momoe dragged her hands over her face. For a moment it looked like she was ready to pass out or scream, or... both. She probably figured out that the last bit of info had been classified as well. The Hunters sure as hell weren't going to be publicizing _that_ any time soon.

"Look, we're not being stupid about this. The other kids are coming back to Odaiba. They still know a _lot_ about fighting, even if they can't do right now. They'll be helping us along the whole way. We can run back to this world to hide when we need to. We're... _safe_. Mostly. We just... have to be careful. And we're _going_ to be careful."

"Promise?"

Momoe's expression suddenly got deathly serious. She dragged her hands away from her face enough that Miyako could see not only the intensity of her gaze but the hard line of her lips. She looked unusually angry for someone who was asking for her to make a promise...

"I know how excited you can get about things... rushing in before you think, refusing to back down... promise me, Miyako. _Promise_ me you won't do anything reckless and put yourself in more danger than you're already in. I'm putting a lot of trust in you... we both know we can't tell mom and dad about this – they'd _freak_, and it wouldn't do a thing to help anyway since we can't keep you out of the fighting. I don't like keeping this a secret, so _please_ promise that it'll be worth it."

Momoe's voice and features grew more and more unsteady with each word, to the point where her sister could actually see the tears starting to form in her eyes. Miyako actually felt a tinge of guilt then... guilt mixed with vindication. She was right to hide the worst of the danger. If this was _Momoe's_ reaction, how would the others have responded?

She nodded. Though she wasn't quite sure how well she'd be able to _keep_ this promise, she'd at least try. Her sister was strong... seeing her on a verge of tears was rare, and it deeply unsettled her. Although she had a hunch that she'd end up letting down on that promise eventually, she had to make it, if only for Momoe's sanity.

"I promise... don't worry. Besides... if I take any stupid risks, it'll put my friends in danger too. I don't want them hurt any more than you want me..."

Momoe slowly nodded, taking several deep breaths to steady herself.

"Thank you. Just... no, never mind. You made your promise already. I'm... I'm going to go downstairs. We're still open... gotta get back to work."

As Miyako watched her sister leave she suddenly felt the weight of this war pressing down on her, like the first children must have felt against Myotismon. It wasn't like there were millions of lives hinging on her decisions, but... this was serious. Deadly serious, and she hadn't realized how much so until that moment. Not that it would stop her from fighting, but she started to figure... maybe that was why Hikari was always so cold about things that involved fighting. This sort of thing was what she'd had to live with every day.

This was what being a digidestined really felt like...

* * *

Daisuke's parents took the news about as well as he expected. They didn't outright panic, and letting them know that the danger wasn't coming to the human world helped calm them a little, but they were still scared. Terrified, almost... but not an invasion.

No... the one who scared them this time was Daisuke. They knew him... too well, in many ways. They knew how he had been since a year prior, near the end of the war.

War hadn't always been his obsession, but seeing so many people hurt at the end of the last one, especially his sister, had... changed him. He had lost none of his vigor, enthusiasm or optimism, but there had been a clear shift in his personal interests, particularly academic. Not that he'd really _had_ any major academic interests before then, but that just made the shift that much more obvious.

"So... you're going to the digital world, then?"

His father was doing his best to maintain a calm demeanor, though there was no hiding the worry in his eyes.

"Every chance I can get. We gotta start hitting back, finding ways to hurt the Kaiser. He might outnumber us, but we can still harass the hell out of him."

"Like Etemon did?"

Daisuke raised an eyebrow as he glanced over to Jun. She wasn't trying to discourage him by drawing a comparison to one of humanity's worst enemies, but it seemed apt enough. After the barriers went up, harassment was his main strategy until the network came online. Given that the Kaiser had his own means to keep most of the children out of the digital world, it actually seemed... _disturbingly_ similar.

"Sure. But the difference is, the digital world is on _our_ side. We're not invaders, we're liberators."

For Jun, that was oddly comforting... though she had no idea how any of this worked and knew nothing about how they might disable those rings Daisuke had mentioned. However, if they could do so the freed digimon would join them. Every win not only made their enemy weaker, but actually made them stronger.

Of course, she could idealize the conflict in her mind because she wasn't there to see it and because she had an odd level of faith in her brother. He'd always been rather annoying when they were younger, but after she got injured she found that he had suddenly matured a bit. Not to say he wasn't still an overly enthusiastic nut at times, but now his irresponsible recklessness had a certain... nobility to it.

Still, his parents, for all their own optimism and enthusiasm, weren't as welcoming of the thought of having their only son running off to the front lines of a war in a different universe...

"Are you sure you're going to be safe? I know you're saying it's not the same, but we can't forget what happened in the war-"

"I _remember_ what happened in the war!"

Daisuke suddenly shouted, abruptly cutting his mother off and taking a step forward.

"Digimon are people too! Good, evil – just like _us_! The Kaiser is _enslaving_ the digital world! If he tried to do that in _our_ world, would you tell me not to fight? The digital world _needs_ us! I don't care if it's safe for me or not! If none of the digimon are safe, why should _I_ be?"

The others all fell silent. Daisuke at his finest... stubborn and reckless, but he still had a point. They could all protest the danger he was putting himself in, but compared to the troubles of the innocent digimon who the Kaiser was enslaving, did it really compete? Daisuke was noble... stupid, but noble. Nobody doubted he was likely to make some serious mistakes from his over-enthusiasm, they couldn't question whether or not it was for good reason.

Finally, his father sighed heavily, sucking back in a deep breath as he forcibly shifted his attitude. Alright then... Daisuke was set on this, and they weren't changing that. No point in arguing over it anymore.

Stepping forward, the man clapped his hand on Daisuke's shoulder hard enough to make the boy stumble in place slightly. Holy _crap_! He _hated_ when his dad did that! That guy was freaking strong... a slap on the shoulder felt like he was getting whacked with a club.

"If you're doing this, make sure you do it right. We ran the invaders out of our world twice, and now this little upstart calling himself the Kaiser shows up... I want you to put the fear of humanity in him, ya hear me?"

Daisuke nodded, his mother sighed, and Jun just shook her head. He was his father's son, no doubt about that...

"Good. I don't ever want to hear you come back and say you're scared... remember, you're on the winning team! We haven't lost a war against these monsters yet, and you're not gonna start now!"

Daisuke nodded again, recoiling slightly as his dad's hand went up, half-expecting the man to slap his shoulder again. However, he paused in mid-motion as a thought struck him.

"Oh yeah. You need a uniform, too."

Wait... huh?

"A uniform? Like the Hunters'?"

The man laughed, shaking his head and slapping Daisuke's shoulder again. Oh, _freaking hell_! Right when he wasn't expecting it, too...

"No, not one of those stuffy things. I mean a uniform, like a hero! If you're going to save the world, you're not going dressed in school clothes, that's for sure. We gotta get you something with some _style_!"

Huh. Well, that made sense to Daisuke, at least. Like father like son, after all. However, Jun was quick to interrupt and cut short their plans to go out shopping for leather jackets and brass knuckles or... whatever the heck they were thinking up.

"Umm... you realize he's going to be fighting in a _war_, right? He's going to need protection more than style. He'd be better off getting body armor from the Hunters..."

From his expression, it was clear the father didn't much like the idea of getting the cut and dried military forces to outfit his son, even if it _was_ safer. Still... mustn't lose sight of the main goal. Win the war.

"Hm... okay. Armor first, then. We can figure out how to make it look cool later."

"Make sure it's got fire on it!"

Veemon chimed in from the side, earning a confused expression from Daisuke. Fire? Why would he- oh! Right, the armor! Armored digimon, armored human. Gotta make sure they keep to a theme.

While the boys went on to start brainstorming ideas for Daisuke's outfit, Jun sighed, shaking her head and giving her mother a look that they both understood too well. They couldn't fault the guys for their enthusiasm, but this was serious business... a lot more serious than they probably realized. They could only hope that Daisuke remembered that when the fighting came, otherwise they were going to have problems...

* * *

There was no shock from Hikari's parents. Not the faintest sense of surprise or even a grim anticipation once Hikari started telling of what happened. They already knew. The Hunter's moving, the absence of both of their children for the duration of the day... there was trouble in the digital world and their children were standing at the front, ready to hold it back.

Their reaction at the end was equally surprising. They didn't show worry or dread at the news of how much trouble there was in the digital world... frankly, compared to what Myotismon had done, this seemed like a small thing by comparison. Besides, she didn't have the ability to fight directly. Not yet, anyway. The worst of the trouble was for the new children... they needed the best help there was, so they needed Taichi and Hikari.

However, more than anything it was her mother's first question after he story finished that surprised Hikari the most.

"Where is Takeru?"

Hikari went quiet. Her parents had learned a bit about him since the last year, mostly from stories from their children. They didn't know it all, of course... nobody did except Hikari and maybe Ken, but they knew that he was a major player in the previous war and that, even without a digimon, he was responsible for as much as the other children, if not more.

"...I don't know."

"Who does?"

"I don't know."

Yuuko nodded slowly. Not a huge surprise. From what Taichi had told them, he wasn't fond of the other children, so it made sense that he wouldn't want to stay around them much. Hopefully that isolation of his wouldn't last for long, though.

"Do you think you'll need his help?"

Her father this time, and Hikari went silent again. She didn't know what to say about that... things were so different this time around that maybe he couldn't be any help to them. He had no partner and they were fighting in the digital world where the Hunters and his other major resources couldn't reach. All he could offer them was advice... strategies and tactics. In many ways those were things that they could handle on their own. Plus, with Ken, one of Takeru's closest aids, assisting them they'd be even better off than they would have been with just the leadership of Taichi, Yamato and Koushiro.

Even so...

"I _want_ his help."

Susumu nodded and shifted back to relax in his seat, thinking for a moment through the awkward silence that hung between them. Then he surprised her yet again as he reached his ultimate conclusion on the whole matter.

"Go to it, then."

Hikari blinked. Uh... what?

"We've always known you were eventually going to have to fight again, Hikari. We never _liked_ it, but..."

Yuuko began, her voice slowly trailing off as her husband picked up where she left off.

"We're not dumb. We notice things. Like the way you changed since last year. It's hard to say it, but... we know this is what you want. You don't want to just live, you want to be doing something important."

What she wanted? That almost made her sound like Takeru with his obsession. Sure, she wanted to be doing something important with her life, but... that didn't mean that _war_ was what it had to be. It could be any number of other things!

...though, in the back of her mind she unconsciously knew that, while there may well be plenty of other such things, war was the only one that she could readily name.

"You saved the world once, Hikari. We trust you. So go... do what you have to do and save the world again. We'll be here for you the whole time, ready to help you in any way you need."

Hikari nodded to her mother. She didn't know what to say to that... there was a certain level of guilt that came with knowing she would be scaring her parents half to death again with the knowledge that she was out fighting, but it wasn't like she had another option. As for them helping her... she couldn't think of anything they _could_ help with at that moment, so... beyond that, it didn't seem like there was much to say.

As Hikari stood to leave, though, Gatomon chimed in.

"How well do you know the Ishida family?"

She had been sitting there listening the whole time and hadn't said anything up until that moment. However, where Hikari's memory fell short, _she_ remembered. She'd been thinking about a lot of facets of this new war while the others plotted, and she came to recognize a few things that the others didn't quickly realize.

Both parents were slightly caught off guard by the question. It certainly wasn't a line of thought they were expecting. Still, Yuuko answered readily enough.

"Well enough, I guess. Taichi and Yamato still talk a lot. We've gotten to know his parents a bit... why do you ask?"

"Well, Yamato is going to be joining the fight and his dad is still working for the Hunters, so he's going to get busy too."

Hm. That was true. Hikari hadn't really thought about it, but the Ishida family was probably the most involved in the war. Every single one of them had either fought directly or helped the Hunters do so. Yamato was digidestined, Masaharu was the former acting director, shifted over to the civilian sector after the war, but he was still active... Natsuko wasn't, of course, but she was also taking care of a newborn ba- wait...

"You said you're here to help however we need, so I was wondering... how do you feel about babysitting?"


	6. Fallout

Remember to check the top of my profile page for a link to the Digital Hazard forum, made by Swords and Roses. Updates and background story info will be regularly posted there.

A/N: Okay, well... this was a bit different than I expected.

This chapter had a few developments that I hadn't planned on. As usual, some things just sort of emerged organically from the story on their own. Still, that's what makes story writing so interesting for me.

On a side note, it was a bit hard to figure out a name and quote for this chapter... normally I like to keep a chapter focused on one single thing, which makes it easy to pick out the name and such, but this one had a few notable events that weren't directly related. Rather than try to encompass everything, I chose the event that was most notable to me and picked the name/quote from that. Not sure what everyone's gonna think of it, but... eh, no worries. A bad title doesn't ruin a story.

Chapter 6: Fallout

**What would be the worth of goodness in a world that always rewarded it?**

The following morning was one of the most peculiar for the new children, and possibly for all the digidestined in general. When the Hunters didn't contact them, Hikari and all of the three new recruits came to the same conclusion. The original team was still getting back together and they'd all get a call when it was time to go back to action.

Thus they all went through their normal daily routines, albeit with the added company of their new digimon partners. This ultimately brought them all to the same place and in the same state. School, with their digimon partners walking right beside them or riding on their shoulder. Hikari was first to arrive, as usual, and she decided to wait this time. She was curious to know the condition of the others and how things fared at home. Daisuke arrived a few minutes later, followed immediately by Miyako and Iori, together as usual.

They remained outside for a couple minutes, exchanging their tales. So far everything seemed to be good... no family crises caused by the news and no word from the Hunters yet. Looked like they were in for a normal day, at least until Taichi finally decided to call.

Then they actually walked into the building and found that it was anything but that.

The halls were almost devoid of... well, anything. There were a few children around, each of which clearly noticed the digidestined's arrival, but they made a conscious effort to ignore them. There was no conversation... hell, there was barely a sound being made at all. Every footstep echoed in a fashion that made them feel like they were walking through a tomb.

"What the hell is going on?"

Daisuke's voice bounced around the halls a few times for naught. No answer was forthcoming from any of the kids nearby. Somehow that was a surprise, even though it really shouldn't have been...

"I guess people knew we were coming."

Iori muttered and walked forward, followed by Hikari and then the other two. He had kind of expected this... more so than Daisuke and Miyako, anyway. They were both so excited about having their partners that they hadn't stopped to think that anybody might be scared of them. Sure, their families wanted them out of danger, but that was fear _for_ them. _This_... this made no sense.

Or it didn't to _them_, at least. To Iori it made complete sense. The other children in school feared Gatomon, and she was a hero. One who had stood against Myotismon to save all their lives. 'Savior of Odaiba' did only a little to mitigate the fear that people held toward her for the fact that she was a digimon. Now the new children had new partners... they weren't heroes yet, so all they had to their credit was the fact that they had digivices. At this point, they garnered more fear than they did praise...

Iori's class was the first room they reached, and when they did they finally found where all the kids were. They'd all rushed into the classrooms early in order to be out of the halls when the digidestined arrived.

Of course, as soon as the door opened and Iori stepped in, everything became as it was in the hall. Still and silent. All eyes were on the boy and his partner, neither of which had anything to say about it. Armadillomon because he didn't even know what was really going on, and Iori because he didn't care. Every kid in the school could fear and hate him... it didn't matter as long as he had his grandpa's approval.

Miyako reached out to catch the boy's shoulder, pulling him back slightly before he stepped in.

"Umm... maybe we should just go."

Miyako's enthusiasm was rapidly draining at seeing everyone's reactions. She hadn't thought the response would be so clearly negative... she thought there might be some surprise, perhaps fear at the possibility of a war, but not fear of... _them_! Hell, they were the _heroes_ here!

"No, it's fine..."

Iori glanced back and muttered, shrugging the hand off his shoulder.

"I don't mind. Besides, it's not like we're going to be here for very long anyway."

The Hunters had to call sooner or later. Taichi may have been upset, but he wasn't the final authority here. Even if the digidestined didn't contact them, the military people would. Duty came first, regardless of how people felt. Iori knew _that_ much about the army, at least.

Before he headed in to face the crowd though, Hikari cut him off.

"Iori, we _need_ to go."

Her sentiment seemed to echo Miyako's in terms of tone, so nobody else in the room would be able to tell a difference, but they also couldn't see Hikari's face. Her eyes weren't on Iori... they were down the hall at something else.

Curious, he stepped out of the room to get a look at what, or rather _who_, Miyako and Daisuke were already seeing, though none of the trio recognized the figure. Not Hunter, not digidestined, not Ken... who was _this_?

Miyako was relieved when Iori shut the door behind him, happy to leave behind all those judging eyes... the idiots she wanted to protect before. She found herself feeling slightly resentful now... she'd come into this thinking of all the good she could have done, and _this_ was how they were repaid? Would it change after they won this war, or would anybody even care? If the fighting didn't come to the human world, she had to wonder...

Fortunately, the odd boy Hikari was approaching soon gave her a distraction from those thoughts.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

That seemed like an odd question to the other children. She apparently recognized him but didn't know what he was here for? First time for _that_...

The boy held up his phone, flashing a text message in front of them, though not long enough for any of them to actually read it.

"Got a message. Told me to pick you all up and get you over to the Hunter base."

"I thought you quit the Hunters and SDZ after the war."

"Sure, officially... but none of us ever _really_ quit, do we?"

Finally Daisuke stepped up, not content to be sitting by, listening to yet another conversation that he didn't understand. They were the digidestined, dammit! He was going to get inside this whole network of secrets even if he had to force his way in with fists...

"Okay, _what_ is going on? Who are you, and what's this about SDZ again?"

The boy's reaction wasn't what Daisuke was used to. There was no shift in demeanor, no tone change to indicate the keeping of secrets. He looked at Daisuke the same as he'd been looking at Hikari and just answered plainly. Thank god _someone_ finally started doing that...

"Ryo Akiyama. SDZ was a part of the Hunters before they reorganized at the end of the war. You should get a full briefing back at HQ, though."

Well, not the best answer, but at least he was straightforward about it.

"It's only the second day. Why'd they call you back in so soon?"

This seemed especially strange to Hikari, who understood that the Hunter protocol... the digidestined made sense, but calling back any of the other children before they brought their adult soldiers back to active duty? That seemed a little backward...

"They didn't. The message came from the outside."

Wait, the _outside_?

"Do you know Ken Ichijouji?"

Miyako asked as she stepped out around Hikari at the other side from Daisuke. Ryo looked her way, but his reaction was quite the opposite his response to Daisuke. His tone dropped flat, his eyes seemed to glaze over slightly... it was about the most obvious example of putting up a mask that she had ever seen.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I do not know anything about an individual with that name."

Then his expression shifted again, suddenly back to normal as he motioned for the door.

"We should go somewhere less public if we're going to talk about this."

He turned and moved swiftly, leaving the school the same way the children had come in and heading out toward the street. Everyone followed, having caught on fairly quickly to the whole secrets and spies act, but Hikari was somewhat... confused. She understood that there were a lot of secrets lingering from the first war, including Ken and the specifics of SDZ, but something about this meeting just seemed... off to her. She couldn't quite place why, though...

Ryo stopped at the street and leaned back against a nearby light pole, apparently content to just loiter for a minute. The rest of the children followed suit, sitting or finding something to lean on until their ride showed up.

They didn't have to wait long... though this time it wasn't a military vehicle like they expected. Instead, they were greeted by a black van. Fortunately, it didn't have tinted windows, so there was no worry that the Yakuza was there to kidnap them. They all saw the figure in the driver's seat, though only Hikari and Ryo immediately recognized him.

Once all the children piled in and the doors were all shut, the introductions began in earnest, starting with the driver.

"Nice to meet you, everyone. I'm Masaharu Ishida, Yamato's dad."

"And Takeru's."

Miyako answered without missing a beat, earning a glance from every set of eyes in the vehicle. Some confused, some curious, and some, as in Hikari's case... wary.

"What do you know about _Takeru_?"

Masaharu answered while Hikari and Ryo both went suspiciously silent. Not much of a surprise to Miyako anymore, after what she had observed already.

"Nothing. I just know the name, that he's Yamato's brother, and the fact that nobody ever wants to talk about him."

Masasharu sighed.

"Right... there's a lot you need to be briefed on. It's hard to start talking about Takeru without getting into a half dozen other subjects at the same time."

"Is he connected to SDZ?"

A few surprised glances went Iori's way, which was as sure a sign as any that he was on the right track with his line of thinking. Then again, based on what Masaharu said he could assume that Takeru was connected to _most_ of the other secrets they'd be running into in the near future.

"He _is_... SDZ has its own history to tell, though on that note... I suppose now is as good a time as any to welcome you to the club."

Welcome... _huh_?

"Wait, to SDZ?"

Hikari cut in, leaning forward toward the front of the vehicle to look between the Masaharu and Ryo who was sitting up front beside him. She was answered with a simple nod from the man.

"But it was _disbanded_."

Hikari was starting to sound like a broken record. Every time they mentioned it, it came with the fact that it was gone now, but that was all the more reason this made no sense. If SDZ was gone, how could they be a part of it now?

"They brought it back. First official order regarding the 'Kaiser Incident'. Special Division Zero is to be reformed out of the digidestined children and a few other key members, with me as the head of it."

Daisuke exhaled a slight sigh of relief. Not at the news, specifically, but more at the fact that somebody _finally_ explained what SDZ actually stood for instead of leaving them in the dark. Kinda cool name, too... but he kept silent with those thoughts while Hikari and Masaharu continued their exchange.

"Why would _that_ be the first order?"

"Politics."

The man answered flatly, his tone taking on a slight edge that indicated he was rather displeased by the specifics...

"I'm sure you'll hear all about it from Taichi once we get to HQ."

Hikari pursed her lips. More bad news, then... oh well. She only hoped that it was something that ticked Taichi off enough to distract him from their own reckless behavior early. Probably not, but she could hope...

* * *

When the children returned to the SDZ room with Masaharu, they found that it had already been adjusted a bit. The empty space had been half covered with mats for the resistance members to rest on until a more permanent residence could be found for them. The computer consoles on the one end of the room had also been moved, with four of them being shifted into the shape of a half-circle in the corner and a long desk being added right next to them.

Though more than any of that, the most noteworthy thing now was the people. _Everyone_ was there – the resistance, including Andromon, Pumpkinmon and Wizardmon, and all the generation one children. Well... _almost_ all of them. Koushiro was sitting at the half-circle in the corner, apparently already hard at work recording and cross-referencing all the intel that he could get out of the resistance. The rest of the team was scattered around. Mimi was hovering around Koushiro and Sora was with the digimon, just talking to them to fill the time.

What initially followed with the new children's entrance was something of a mess. Hikari going to greet everyone save Jou, who was apparently asleep in the lounge room. He had been exhausted by school, and it wasn't helping that he was still taking the classes despite moving back to Odaiba, but that was neither here nor there.

The other children all went to greet the original digidestined as well, and for a minute there was a bit of confusion as everyone went back and forth, unsure of what kind of relationship there was standing between. There was a distinct sense of division between the two generations... while they were all digidestined, the first children had much more experience so they were, in a way, the new kids' superiors. However, they had no actual authority over them, especially now when the new kids were going to be the ones in the field all the time. The fact that Ryo was also there and not a member of _either _group or that the two leaders were absent didn't help things either...

Eventually Masaharu woke Jou up and called everyone to the center table for an official team meeting. If nothing else, at least they all knew that _he_ was someone who was in charge and could give the rest of them a sense of direction.

The first fifteen minutes of said meeting was spent getting everyone caught up and officially on the same page as everyone else. Introductions, debriefings, dissemination of intel... he wasn't able to get to filling in the new generation of children on information about SDZ or Takeru, but that could wait. They were still at war even if, for the moment, they were safe.

That also served to give time for the leaders to return, and they did so as the generation two children neared the conclusion of their tale from the second trip to the digital world, cutting it short. They all knew how that ended, though. They all got home, they were safe... not much more to add after that, or at least that's what they all assumed.

Taichi sighed as he stepped in, clearly worn from a long discussion with his superior. Still, he managed to maintain a fairly cheerful demeanor regardless. Having everyone back together made him feel like things weren't running out of control anymore and on top of that, now they had a bit of extra help...

"We're back... and we picked up a straggler along the way."

"Ken!"

A few raised brows went Miyako's way. It was odd that _she_ would be the first to notice him, and perhaps more odd that there wasn't a person in the room who needed an introduction with him. That just went to show how involved he already was with the new conflict.

"He walked in claiming he was a member of SDZ, so the soldiers sent him our way. I figured it was a lie, but we could also use his help, so..."

Masaharu chuckled, motioning for the new arrivals to take their seats.

"It's fine. I'll have his name on the personnel list before we finish... anyway, welcome. We just finished our debriefing, but I think you three already know everything from that, so we can move right along. First and foremost... Taichi, what's the official condition of the war?"

Taichi let out another heavy sigh, and for a moment he had an expression that told Hikari he wanted to claw his eyes out in frustration... or, pending that, claw out the eyes of someone from Hunter Command. Idiots and their damn politics... they could never just do what they needed to, could they?

"They've cut the emergency level down to D-5. Aside from the fact that there's no way in _hell_ it's only a level five threat, making it D class basically means that command is saying it's no threat to the Hunters. They're still doing training operations and stuff just in case, but they're treating this as if it's all _our_ problem."

Masaharu nodded solemnly, clearly unsurprised. He had been around the Hunter command long enough to know what to expect of them...

"I expected as much. How is Commander Kaiba reacting?"

"Ready to to start lopping heads off... maybe literally. His hands are pretty much tied right now, though. He barely got away with reforming Special Division Zero. He's been arguing his point all morning. Looks like it's gonna stick, though... thanks to a little help from _us_."

"What's actually going on here?"

Yamato cut in abruptly, eyes meeting his father's. He'd been there for the meetings, he knew there was more going on than what appeared on the surface. He just didn't know the details because he wasn't privy to the workings of Hunter politics.

"You sent us in there to back him up and volunteered to command SDZ yourself. What are you pushing so hard for, and _why_?"

Masaharu sighed. He had the look of an old man for a moment... weary of war and of the world in general. He'd been around this mountain a hundred times before, back in the first war. Now there was a new war and he was right back to it. Seems he'd never get a rest from this crap...

"Short answer, it's a power struggle. After the war, command was split between civilian and military, but they aren't equal. Right now it's peace time, which means the civilian branch is the one in control. If a sustained V-4 emergency was to be held, eventually it would be declared a full war and the military division would be given command. The civilian side is trying to avoid that. They don't like the policies of the military branch and vice-versa. It's caused a few... _personal_ issues between some of the people in command."

Great... so there were rivalries spawned from politics. Just what they needed. It figures... as soon as the war ends they go back to squabbling amongst themselves rather than focusing on protecting humanity like they were supposed to.

"What about SDZ? How do _we_ fit into this?"

"SDZ is and always has been a military division, which means we're technically under Commander Kaiba's authority. The civvies obviously don't like that because it gives him room to work outside of their control. Doubly so because it includes all of _you_ – right now, you all are basically the whole war effort. That's the reason I volunteered to command it. I'm in the civilian branch, so having me here _should_ give my superiors a bit of an edge in their politics maneuvers."

"_Will_ it?"

This time it was Ken speaking. He had a familiar tone and expression to those that knew him... unlike Hikari who seemed to reflect Takeru in her demeanor when she got cold, Ken had his own unique... _edge_. It wasn't something he picked up from anyone. His own experiences had shaped him into the sort of intellectual weapon he had become. He was cold, but not ice cold like Takeru. There was a fire to go with that ice. A passion and a personal drive he didn't bother hiding from anyone...

"Hardly. I don't care about politics. It's all just people talking, it doesn't actually fix anything. The only reason I'm playing these games is to help all of _you_. Having you in SDZ means the commander can give more direct support in personnel and supplies... basically, I'm here as your buffer, to keep the politics out of your way so you can do what you need to."

"So who's actually in charge?"

Iori piped in. He didn't mind the man's logic, and he understood the need for him to do the political work like he was, but that was likely to be a full time job and they needed to know what they were doing when he wasn't around.

"Good question... I set up a basic chain of command for the Hunters' sakes, but I figure you kids won't be following it. You can figure out for yourselves who will be doing what. For official purposes, though... Taichi and Yamato, you're listed as co-leaders. Taichi is military branch, Yamato is civilian. Koushiro is your administrative overseer, civilian branch, which basically means any official requests to the Hunters have to go through him. Ryo and Ken, you two are regular members of SDZ, which means you're technically in the military branch and under the commander, not me. Everyone else has ambiguous status and you're not in either branch, so you just follow whatever your team leader says."

"Sounds like a confusing mess..."

Jou muttered, rubbing his forehead lightly as Masaharu shrugged and answered.

"Welcome to politics."

After the table had fallen silent, Masaharu glanced around again, his expression hardening for a moment as he momentarily appeared... concerned? No, that wasn't it. Hikari knew his looks. This was something different... most of the other children didn't notice it, but she did. Something else was up with all this. Something he hadn't said yet.

"Now, there's one final thing..."

Bingo.

"Ryo and Ken, since you're military branch you can go directly to Commander Kaiba if necessary. You can't make official requests, but if you can convince him you need help, he can just give the order directly, so it's all the same. That basically means you have someone in each branch that can handle any task you need. If you can't what you need from one side you can go to the other. However... with me as the leader, the civilian branch could suspend by authority and bring all SDZ operations to a halt if they wanted, so the commander made an executive decision to get around that..."

Masaharu leaned back and took a deep breath. Alright, time to take the dive... he had no idea how some of the children were going to respond to this – other than badly – but the decision had already been made. No going back now.

"I've been officially assigned a co-leader... Katsu Fang."

"_Katsu_?"

"Who's Katsu?"

"I thought he was still off the grid..."

"...not even his real name."

"Seriously, who the heck is Katsu?"

All the reactions came out at once, and it took a minute for Masaharu to silence them so he could speak again. That wasn't even the worst of it yet and he didn't need everyone drowning him out with all their questions and confusion.

"_Officially_... Katsu Fang, the former division head, has been reinstated as its military head. However, given that we don't know where he is and the fact that his Hunter clearance is currently suspended, that's basically just a well placed lie. That commander and I agreed on this when the division was brought back. I was – apparently – put in command after we couldn't find him. That's all my superiors know. However, the truth is I'm not his substitute. We're co-leaders. That means we need another substitute for him, and the commander already made his choice for that..."

His gaze fell on Hikari and she felt a familiar cold chill go down her spine, reminiscent of the first time this had happened. No... _seriously_? They were doing this to her _again_? Damn it all, it was bad enough in the first war! Back then she was just covering for him to keep Myotismon's hands off the division, but now she was being put in charge from the very beginning?

Taichi was apparently none too pleased, either. Beyond just having his younger sister as his superior officer, there was still the matter of her recklessness from before that they hadn't hashed out yet... fortunately, he was never given a chance to talk before Ryo cut him off.

"So what does that mean from day to day? Is Hikari actually going to be the one administrating everything?"

His speech was smooth... smooth enough that Taichi wondered if he deliberately cut him off to prevent any open arguments. They'd talk about that later... he'd let that slide because it was actually a good question and they needed practical knowledge, not just political jargon.

"No. As I said, my superiors don't know about this yet. It's official, but secret. If Hikari starts issuing orders they'll find out rather quickly, so for now she's basically just another member of the team. But if I get removed for... political reasons, all authority goes to her."

Daisuke slapped the table with his hands, cutting off Masaharu and drawing everyone attention to himself. Okay, political junk over... he was getting annoyed with this and he needed some answers, _now_.

"Okay... _who_ is Katsu Fang? I've never even _heard_ of this guy before, and then there's that other Takeru kid who nobody's talking about... I'm getting kinda sick of all the secrets around here."

"It's an alias. A fake name created to divert Myotismon's attention in case he ever found out who the head of SDZ was and went after him. You'll be briefed on that soon, trust me. But first we need to prioritize. Koushiro!"

The boy immediately snapped to attention and stood from his seat at the corner terminal where he had been listening from. Picking up his laptop, he brought it over and set it down along with some papers that were covered in notes about the Kaiser and what they had learned, both from the children and the resistance members.

"Give a full briefing on current objectives."

Koushiro nodded and tapped a few buttons, bringing up all his info. What he would give to have a large screen to display this info to everyone else, but he could bring that in later...

"Alright, our primary objective is, obviously, the defeat of the Kaiser. However, given our lack of proper intel, our first priority is to learn everything we can about him, her, or it. I've divided our intel gathering into three main sections: Identity, tools, and objectives.

Identity is obvious. We need to know who and what the Kaiser is. Tools is slightly more complex... we know about the rings, but we don't know how they work. We need to figure that out. We also need to figure out what the purpose is, if anything, of those silver spires we spotted. Also, if there are any other weapons the enemy is using, we need to add them to the list of targets to study. Objective is the final point, and it's a derivative of all our other data. We need to determine what the end-game is for the Kaiser. It could just be total control of the digital world, or that could simply lead to an invasion of _this_ world. It could also be something else entirely. Listen – this is the most thing for us to figure out. We can't stop the Kaiser until we know what we're actually trying to stop, so learn all you can and keep your eyes open. Anyone questions, comments?"

Hikari raised her hand, doing her best to ignore the searing gaze that she could feel coming from her brother a few seats down...

"I noticed a few weird things about the digimon in the last fight. I'll fill you in after the meeting."

"Good. We've already gotten started, then. Anything else? No? Alright, our secondary objective is a subsidiary of the first. We need to expand the resistance. Figuring out what we can about the rings will help us develop a means to counter them. Once we start freeing digimon from their control we need to _keep_ them free. If we can do that we can start to build an army to counter the Kaiser's own. In the meantime, we need to set up places for digimon to hide in the digital world once they get free so that they don't get captured again."

"What about being able to contact the resistance once they start getting free?"

Sora cut in, looking first to Koushiro and then to Ken, the latter of which simply shook his head.

"No good. Without the new digivices communications aren't clear enough."

"Until we can find a way to cut through the interference, regular communication is impossible. We might be able to set up temporary comm systems, but until we know the digimon are safe from being captured again we can't have them help out our operations, so there's no point in trying to coordinate with them yet. We should focus on dealing with the other problems first."

Koushiro followed up Ken's answer and promptly continued, apparently having developed some kind of 'Talker' mode during the last year. Either it was the time spent out doing presentations to people around the world or just the fact that he had so much to say, but Masaharu had asked him to give a full briefing and... _damn_, that boy sure was giving it.

"As a side objective, we need to get the new digidestined trained. _We_ have three years of war experience that we can't use; _they_ can fight, but they have to ad-lib everything. We need to combine those. I'll leave it up to Taichi and Yamato to decide how to do that, but we need a plan for long-term training that can get them prepared while still leaving time to run operations in the digital world."

"Also, I want them briefed on all that happened in the first war. Everything that the rest of you know."

There was clearly a bit of discomfort at hearing that, mostly from the earlier question Daisuke had asked and his mention of Takeru. They'd have to talk about that, too... knowing he was alive took away some of the sting of their loss, but not of their failure. It was still a touchy subject, more so because they knew he still held a grudge.

"Anything else, Koushiro?"

"Not at this time, sir."

Masaharu nodded, standing and shifting back slightly to start moving from the table, though not before giving a few final commands to each of the children.

"Alright... Hikari, get with Koushiro and fill him in on what you saw. Ryo, come with me. We need to talk. You two, start working on a plan for that training..."

He motioned to Taichi and Yamato and he got up to walk away, followed shortly by Ryo, though he stopped short of actually leaving, giving one final command first.

"And _all_ of you, make sure you have something to work on at all times. I know I don't have to say this, but as a reminder... this is a _war_. Just because we're not being attacked here doesn't mean we're safe. Just because you _can't_ fight doesn't mean you can't help the new digidestined do so, and they're going to need all the help they can get. Until proven otherwise, I want you all to assume that this new enemy is at least as dangerous as Myotismon and prepare to fight accordingly. Dismissed!"

Taichi and Ryo both instinctively saluted as the dismissal and the group quickly dispersed, each to their own corner to handle business. Though Hikari was supposed to brief Koushiro, it ended up being her briefing most of the team. All of the gen one children gathered with them save Taichi and Yamato, who were already busy planning their training strategy.

Hikari summarized her findings quickly, noting the anomalies in the digimon behavior, particularly from the last fight... something about that was still unnerving, and the longer she thought about it the more it gnawed at her. If they just had questions it wouldn't be so bad, but now she felt like she was staring the answer straight in the face and she couldn't recognize it. What was with those damn rings...

Koushiro, of course, went to work immediately, referencing all his sources to start listing all the possible answers.

"Both free will and control... the most basic explanation would be that there are different kinds of rings. Some allow tighter control, some more willful action. The latter would almost definitely be the harder to produce, so it would be made it fewer numbers..."

"Could it be something about the digimon themselves?"

Jou interjected, falling back on his medical training and experience. Different people reacted differently to all sorts of things, from diseases to medicines to shifting diets... why wouldn't it be the same for the digimon?

"I considered that. The rings seem to function generally well across the spectrum, with all digimon types, so I doubt it's the digimon's attributes that would affect them. However, it's possible that stronger digimon are harder to control and so they retain more free will than the weaker ones."

"But if they have more free will, why wouldn't they be _resisting_ control? The big one Hikari saw was the most aggressive of the group."

Sora wasn't a tech expert, but she understood the basic rules of science and logic, and this was just common sense. If a digimon was resisting control they ought to be doing _less_ of what the Kaiser wanted, not more.

"Good question. Good enough to make me consider writing that theory off, but without actually analyzing the rings we can't be certain. I don't want to jump to conclusions too soon... Mimi, what am I missing?"

It might have seemed odd to turn to her for advice, but during the war and even afterward he had learned that she had a way about her... a way that was completely the opposite from how he tended to think, and that was useful for giving him a unique perspective, especially when he got tunnel-vision... which was often.

Mimi was quiet for a moment, just sitting on the floor beside Koushiro's chair and listening. Her expression was neutral, which could mean any number of things. Maybe she was deep in thought, maybe she was hiding what she was thinking... or maybe she just didn't have anything to say about it all?

Hah. Not likely...

"Why do they have to be different?"

Silence. Everyone took a second to ponder the question, though only Koushiro immediately realized what she was implying.

"Maybe the reason they fought differently was because they _were_ different? The stronger digimon fights harder, the weaker ones are more careful... maybe they're both puppets _and_ have free will."

There was a full minute of silence as Koushiro pondered over everything that might imply. It didn't lead him to any quick conclusions, but that only served to make him realize what their biggest problem was...

"I'm not sure how that's possible... but it still could be. Without studying the rings we have no way of knowing."

He sighed, leaning back in his chair and dropping his shoulders slightly in defeat.

"This is all just pointless theorizing. We need more data. Until we get it, there's nothing we can be sure of. Alright..."

He tapped a few keys quickly on his computer, saving all the data Hikari had given him before setting it aside. For now, they'd just have to leave it.

"This will come in handy later, but right now there's nothing else we can do with it..."

"Is anybody else getting a feeling of deja vu?"

Sora muttered, rather suddenly and without any explanation. Hikari didn't understand what she meant, and the other children didn't really share the feeling either... in many ways it was quite the opposite. This was completely different from what they were used to... and yet, from her expression, it was clear that something about all this was unnervingly familiar.

"What do you mean?"

Hikari was curious... curious because something about this was also bugging her and she wondered if it may have been related. Sora simply shook her head though, clearly having no clearer a sense of what it was than Hikari herself.

"I don't know. I just keep feeling like... we've been here before. Like we've fought this fight already..."

Sora's voice trailed off and she sighed, standing to walk away. This... something was wrong with this. Something was _very_ wrong, but she couldn't figure out what...

Mimi made a mental note to speak to her about it later. Meanwhile, attention turned back to Koushiro who was already hard at work planning for the next stage.

"So far all the rings that have been broken disintegrated immediately. Removing one from a digmon and studying it is probably impossible, so we'll have figure out an alternative. I'll start working on tweaking some Hunter equipment to try to make something to scan them while they're active... in the meantime, we also need to look into figuring out where these things are coming from. Maybe we can capture one before it ends up on a digimon."

Hikari nodded, standing as she glanced back toward the rest of the room, noting the other gen two children sitting around Ken at the other consoles, talking over something. Hopefully he was prepping them for their next mission to the digital world.

"So what's our first mission?"

"I don't know. I don't have any gear ready, so we can't study anything yet. Until we can it's not my call."

Hikari nodded. It was easy to forget sometimes that Koushiro wasn't actually in charge. He was just the guy who knew everything, so people did what he said even if he wasn't trying to lead. Alright then... since Taichi and Yamato were still busy, she was going to make the call. Besides, neither of them could fight and given the way Taichi was behaving lately she wasn't sure that was a bad thing... in any case, they needed someone to lead while in the field and given her experience compared to the others she was the most likely candidate.

Back in charge of things again... _yay_.

Hikari headed over to Ken and the others, catching a tiny part of their conversation. Something about SDZ... she didn't pick up a lot, but she had a hunch she knew what they were talking about. After all, who knew more about Katsu and SDZ than Ken?

Well... _Hikari_ did, but that was because Takeru had told her himself. Of course, nobody knew about that and she wasn't about to tell them...

"Ken, I need you to get a gate ready."

The boy shifted his focus from history lessons to military work easily enough, though he was clearly confused by her request. They didn't even have general strategy yet and she wanted to rush back to the digital world?

"Where? What's the plan?"

"Anywhere. Pick a dozen random terminals to send us to. I want to start scouting across the Kaiser's territory. All we've seen is rings and spires, and only when running away. I want to get a better look at what he or she is up to..."

Ken nodded, though not very enthusiastically. He clearly didn't like the plan, but he wasn't digidestined so he couldn't well complain if the others were willing to go along with it.

"Two problems. One, I don't know where anything is. I'll need the resistance's help to figure out where to send you."

"Well, that's easy enou-"

"_Two_... the network is still locked down. Taichi hasn't opened it up. We'll need his approval before you can go anywhere."

Crap. She had hoped that Masaharu or Commander Kaiba could have dealt with Taichi about that since the other day. She _really_ didn't want to confront him about it now, but she didn't see that she had much other choice. She could simply try to wait him out and let him open it back up in his own time, but she wasn't sure how long that would take. For some reason Taichi was trying to play things safer than he ever used to and she had no idea what that would mean for the war. If it was the old Taichi she could predict how he was going to act, but now... hell, she had no clue.

She had to confront him, then. Great... perfect way to follow up their team meeting, with a trip to the gallows.

Hikari turned away, leaving the others to resume their history lesson while she went to speak to her brother and Yamato. She tried to maintain as professional a demeanor as possible, though as she approached the duo and Taichi turned to her it was obvious he knew what she was there for already.

"We need the network unlocked. We need to head to the digital world."

"Why?"

Taichi's demeanor was colder than she'd ever seen from him, both his eyes and his voice, and... that hurt. It hurt enough just to see him like that, but the fact that he was acting that way toward _her_, his own sister? She'd hoped their mutual trust might be stronger than that. Apparently not...

"Scouting. I want to start collecting intel on what the Kaiser is doing."

"_Why_?"

Hikari inhaled sharply as a sudden rush of frustration. Damn it, Taichi... fine. You want to play that game? I learned from someone who's a hundred times colder and a thousand times more of a bastard than you.

"Because we're fighting a _war_, and we need to have _intelligence_ if we're going to win."

Yamato took a half step back from the other two, both literally and figuratively distancing himself from the sibling quarrel. The multiple meanings of her words weren't lost on either him or Taichi and even some others across the room were starting to take notice, particularly Sora and Jou. Koushiro and Mimi were still distracted with the boy's research, though probably not long at this rate...

"What are you collecting intel _on_?"

"Whatever we can. We have to start somewhere."

"You're just going to charge in without a plan?"

"Sure. We could call it an homage to _you_."

Yamato winced slightly and took another half-step back, now regretting that comment he had made the day before about Taichi's recklessness in the war. Sora and Jou were both standing nearby now, though neither dared to get any closer than Yamato. There seemed to be a bubble of hostility forming around the two siblings and nobody wanted to risk stepping into it...

"What I did was necessary. What _you_ did was just reckless. Miyako would have been fine without the help. In fact, she ended up saving _you_ in the end, which just proves I was right."

"We found Iori's digimental before the Kaiser could cover the area in guards. The enemy isn't just going to sit around and _wait_ for us to get ready for a war. They're still advancing across the digital world and our fight is only going to get harder the longer we wait. Quick attacks aren't reckless, they're good strategy. They're what we _need_ right now!"

"Strategy? There wasn't any strategy involved! You just ran in, ignoring everything I was saying, ignoring the fact that you didn't even know what was _there_, and now you're just coming up with excuses to try to cover up the fact that what you did was selfish and _stupid_!"

By now the argument had escalated to the point where everyone in the room could hear them. Ken and the gen two children were all watching from a distance, as were Koushiro and Mimi, but none of them tried to approach until... the quiet.

"...selfish...?"

Hikari didn't shout back. Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but her eyes had grown even colder and harder than they had been a moment before. She wasn't hurt... no, she was angry. It was quiet anger, and that was... _bad_. That was a hundred times worse than her shouting, especially if she was anything like the boy she'd learned from.

As soon as Ken realized what was happening he stood, nearly running out of his seat to her side to try to grab her and pull her away before she said or did something catastrophic. As he got close though, Hikari reached out suddenly to grab him by the collar, pushing him back and choking him slightly in the process. She wasn't going to hurt him... she just needed to hold him back for a moment. Long enough to give her a chance to speak her mind.

"Alright, Taichi... let's do it _your_ way. Let's sit here and wait. Let's let other people fight our battles for us while we hide in safety. Let's stand around and pretend we're planning and preparing until one of the new digidestined finally gets fed up with our bullshit, finds a way through the network, and charges in ahead of us. Let's let someone else _die_ for our cowardice rather than standing up and fighting to hold back the tide like the digidestined are _supposed_ to do."

Silence. Taichi was stunned. Ken gasped as Hikari released him, but he didn't dare say a word, either. Despite her voice being so quiet and calm, in the muted room nearly everyone heard them all the same. A few didn't understand all they implied, but the deafening silence that hung afterward made it clear there was far more subtext to her words than simply calling her brother out as a coward.

However, Hikari didn't leave it at that. She probably should have, but her anger and indignation were burning far too hot to let it end there. She needed to kick him when he was down... at least once. Petty? Sure... but she didn't give a damn.

"...Takeru was right about you."

Aaaaand... that was it. That was as far as she would ever need to go. Without another word or glance, she turned and walked away. Out the door, out of the base... wherever the hell her feet would take her. The only thing that kept her from lashing out at the Hunters on the way was the feline on her shoulder. Her best friend, constant support, and reminder that no matter how bad things were for her, they could always be worse... compared to what she had been through at the hands of Myotismon, Taichi's bullshit was nothing.

Hikari never actually made it out of the base, though. As she neared the entrance she was intercepted by a familiar face... one who hadn't been present for the argument. She hadn't thought anything of it at the time, and she didn't think anything of it now... she didn't really care why Ryo and Masaharu had left, though she chose to humor the boy with her attention now, if only to distract from the anger that was still raging inside her.

"Hikari, we have a problem."

"We _always_ have a problem."

Ryo wasn't deterred by her cold attitude. He'd faced far worse from Ka- Takeru, and it wasn't his job to keep her happy, anyway... the digidestined could deal with their own issues. He strictly handled the affairs of SDZ and the Hunters.

"Masaharu needs to talk to you. Come on..."

Hikari only just then started to notice that Ryo was speaking in a low tone, apparently trying to avoid attention. Why? They were in the Hunter HQ. Did they _really_ need to keep something under wraps _here_ of all places?

Regardless, she followed and soon enough found herself back up at a familiar office. Apparently being shuffled around the chain of command didn't change where the man was physically positioned inside the base. That was convenient, though given that he helped save the city and world from traitors and Myotismon, she figured he had earned at least that much.

She was surprised to see what the man was doing when she arrived, though. He was working on something with his computer and... checking his phone. Odd... she'd never seen him do much with a phone before, but whatever.

"Okay, so what's this latest crisis?"

Hikari was still a bit edgy from the fight with Taichi, but the seriousness that was evident on the faces of both Ryo and Masaharu was starting to shift her mood. They didn't even respond to her snarky comment, which made it clear that they were dealing with a deadly serious issue. Okay, just what was going on here?

Ryo answered by holding out his phone to her, showing her a... text message? A quick check revealed that it was likely the same one that he had flashed to the team back at the school, but she didn't understand why it might be a problem for them...

_Find Hikari and her team at school and bring them outside. I will be there to pick them up soon._

"Okay? I was there for that. So what?"

"I never sent that text."

Masaharu answered flatly, setting his phone down on his desk. He motioned for her to approach, tapping a few buttons on the phone screen. Hikari blinked in confusion but was still calm. Stepping forward, she handed the phone back to Ryo. Okay... so somebody sent the message in his name. That was... problematic, but-

"The text was sent from my number. Not just my number, though... it actually came from my phone."

Uh... what?

Masaharu turned his phone around and pushed it to the far end of the desk where Hikari could see it. Another text, and this time she noted the name of the person it had come from. Ryo Akiyama...

_Come to Hikari's school, bring a van. Hikari and her team are waiting here. They need a ride to Hunter HQ._

"And _you_... never sent _that_ text."

She said slowly, carefully as she looked to Ryo. The boy nodded grimly, gesturing over to Masaharu as he echoed the man's earlier words.

"But it came from my number... _and_ my phone."

"How do you know it actually came from your phone? It could've been faked."

Gatomon answered quickly. Not that she figured they were wrong. They usually checked things like that, but she wanted it explained to her clearly, just in case.

"Our phones are both on the Hunter network. We were able to trace the source back. They originated from these two phones, there's no doubt."

Hikari stopped to think for a minute. Someone wanted them together and at the base with the other children, and they were able to get them there covertly by using the phones of these two to contact each other...

"Wizardmon?"

"That's what I suspected, but even if he could have cloaked and used our phones without us noticing, those messages were sent within only a minute of each other, and we were miles apart."

Not Wizardmon, so that meant the phones were likely hacked, but who...?

"Did Ken hack them?"

"Thought that too, but I called his mother. She said he was gone by then. Already on his way here, I figure... so he wouldn't have had a computer to hack from."

That... didn't leave them many options. There was only major choice left...

"...Takeru."

Masaharu half-nodded, though it was more in acknowledgment of the idea than actually to confirm any truth of it. He'd thought the same thing yet again...

"Problem is, his Hunter clearance has been revoked. He can't get in the system, and he was never a hacker back during the war. He left it up to Ken to handle all that business."

That was disturbing. Knowing their system was apparently insecure was bad enough, but not knowing who was actually doing the hacking made it a hundred times worse...

"So who's left?"

"Could be Koushiro, but he was here at the base, being watched by the other gen one digidestined, and he wouldn't need to be covert anyway. He could have just asked and I'd have gone for him. Besides... there's another anomaly that it wouldn't explain."

Masaharu gestured and Hikari moved around to his side of the desk to look at his screen. Personnel records... Ryo Akiyama. Specifically, the history of his status in the Hunters. Active, switched to reserve a year ago, and then made active once more. No surprise there... but as Masaharu soon pointed out, there was something wrong with the date of his reactivation.

"Wait. That's..."

It took Hikari a moment to recognize it, but once she did she froze. The date was from the previous morning, dead center in the middle of the school hours. She wasn't sure about the exact time, but... it must have been fairly close to...

"...when they got the digivices."

"And about ten minutes before Koushiro contacted us and declared a V-4 emergency."

"WHAT?!"

Hikari reeled back slightly, shock covering her face. Before- but... how? How could anyone have even _known_ about that? Only Koushiro, but if he could do that then why did he have such an issue contacting Taichi and the Hunters like he did? Just hack all the damn phones and text everyone about the emergency directly.

"That's not all."

Ryo muttered and Hikari looked to him. Oh _god_, what now...? She could actually feel the physical sensation of dread running through her veins...

"I got an email that morning. Saw it before I went to school. It had no sender. It told me that my Hunter status was being switched back to active. It was sent a few hours before my status was actually changed."

No sender? Obviously a hack in that case, but they'd managed to hide the source even inside the network? Not only that, but someone had actually known what was happening well in advance! Not just a few minutes apart, but... predicting it? _That's_- wait, wait... calm down, Hikari... she _knew_ this. She had seen this before. This could only be the work of one person...

"This _has_ to be Takeru."

"You'd _think_ so, wouldn't you?"

Masaharu's answer did nothing to actually calm Hikari, and soon enough that sense of dread was returning...

"Only one problem. Those text messages."

The... huh? She already knew about those.

"So he learned how to hack since last year. So what?"

"Hikari... Takeru's been invisible for months. Not a word heard from him... he might not even be in the _country_ anymore, for all we know. If he's not here, how would he have known that you all were at the school when you were and been able to time it so perfectly?"

Oh. Well, maybe- wait...

"Uhh..."

It took a few seconds for the full weight of what was being said to dawn on her. Takeru, or anybody else for that matter, knowing where they were and what they were doing at all times was disturbing, of course, but when compounded with everything else, it started to paint out an extremely troubling picture... no, not just troubling. Terrifying.

Someone had full, unauthorized and simultaneously un_restricted_ access to their network, knew what they were doing at any given time, and knew about the conflict in the digital world, enough that they were able to predict a number of events well before they took place. Given his level of influence and control before, Takeru seemed the obvious choice, but... that left one major question.

"...if it's Takeru, why is he doing it in secret rather than just coming out and showing himself openly?"

Masaharu nodded grimly. They all knew the answer, of course, but only Ryo was able to actually voice it as Hikari was too stunned by this sudden rush of news and Masaharu feared the words too much to actually speak them.

"Whoever it is, they have something to lose by exposing themselves. If it's Takeru, it could mean danger."

"The Kaiser."

Gatomon answered immediately. Ryo nodded in return, though Gatomon quickly shook her head. He'd misunderstood her meaning, as had the rest of them...

"I don't mean the danger. That's true too, but... if it's _not_ Takeru and everyone else is already exposed, there's only one person left who it might be."

That was... _beyond_ terrifying. Hikari had assumed before that they were all gearing up for the new war that had just begun, but if _that_ was true then... the enemy was manipulating them. Controlling them... _toying_ with them! She desperately hoped it wasn't the case, because if it was, it could well mean that this war was already lost.

Hikari was broken out of her thoughts by, ironically enough, a text message... one from Mimi, of all people. It was clear and simple, a bit more to the point than most of her messages, but Hikari could tell from the emotes that it was her style, at least... no risk of it being another hack.

"Text from Mimi... Yamato's taken command and ordered the network opened back up. The team's getting ready to go... and they want me to lead."

"Yamato? Why isn't Taichi leading?"

Hikari could guess, of course... but now wasn't the time to bring that up, on top of everything that had just been said. She shook her head, pocketing her phone quickly.

"It's... complicated. Me and Taichi... have some issues to settle. We'll take care of it, don't worry. You focus on all of... _this_."

Masasharu nodded and Hikari turned to leave, though as she started the man grabbed her arm, stopping her rather abruptly. That wasn't usually his way... normally he would just use words, but sometimes he needed to make a point.

"Hikari, don't tell anyone about this yet. We need to investigate more, and I don't want anyone getting paranoid or crazy in the meantime. Just be careful in the digital world and try to keep this out of your mind for now."

Hikari nodded slowly. She wasn't sure how much she really wanted to keep this secret given the potential danger, but she could see the value of not making it totally public, either. For now she'd just have to trust Masaharu to tell the people that needed to hear. Her focus needed to be on the digital world... she was the weakest of the field team, and she was also their leader for now. She'd have enough of her own problems without worrying about the ghost in the network...

* * *

Well, at least there was one advantage to that earlier argument... when Hikari returned nobody could recognize her troubled expression for what it actually was. They all assumed it was due to what happened before and she was more than happy to let them keep thinking so. She was a leader, which meant she had to concern herself with the morale of the team now.

So Hikari prepared, along with Gatomon and the new children. She listened to Wizardmon lay out what the resistance knew about the regions they were investigating. She set her team roles and made plans for various emergencies and contingencies. She got everyone was equipped with Ken's comm gear and made sure the gen one children were all set up and ready to advise along the way.

And she tried very, very hard to not think about everything Ryo and Masaharu had said... and not let herself worry that they all might be doomed already.


	7. Silence

A/N: Okay, this is new. For the last chapter, I actually got more favorites and follows than reviews. o.O

Well, anyway! We've got a few more hints in this chapter, a few more possibilities for all you theory-crafters, and coming next chapter the excitement is finally going to start picking up. Nothing special to say this time around, so without further ado, onto the chapter!

Chapter 7: Silence

**Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?**

Following the trouble of their initial mission, the first week of the conflict was relatively quiet. The first few days were spent on rapid-deployment missions all across the digital world. It didn't take long for the new children to adjust to the new system; jump to a new gate, scout the area, retreat before getting detected.

The original scouting targets turned up nothing of value. All the sites they visited seemed to contain exactly the same thing: A heavily guarded spire surrounded by an empty wilderness. Oddly, aside from enslaving countless hundreds and thousands of digimon with those rings, the digimon Kaiser didn't seem to actually be _doing_ anything.

This was compounded during the latter half of the week as the children began scouting the edges of the Kaiser's territory. They discovered more pockets of resistance in the process – those who had managed to flee the Kaiser's expansion before being captured by the rings – who reported much the same thing that the children had been noting. The Kaiser had gone quiet. The expansion had stopped. They all assumed it was only because the Kaiser's armies were busy assaulting some other region but, as the children soon discovered, that phenomena blanketed every region outside the Kaiser's control.

The reports all said the same thing. After the three new children recovered their partners and digimentals, the Kaiser and all the controlled digimon went completely silent. No attacks, no expansion, nothing.

The children didn't initially know what to make of this, but neither Koushiro nor Ken were content to simply sit on this knowledge and wonder. They kept the children constantly working on new tasks, each one preparing for the day when the silence would inevitably end. The former kept busy developing new sensors and communications systems as well as studying the pattern of the interference in hopes of finding a way to cut through it. Subsequently, most of his time was spent working with the Hunter tech teams, away from the rest of the children.

With Koushiro busy, Ken took up the role as the children's leading tech and strategic adviser with Miyako as his assistant, a role that she was more than happy to fill. In addition to getting all the data on Koushiro's current projects, she was working directly under a boy who was arguably one of the two most knowledgeable people in the world when it came to digi-tech. Three if you counted Takeru... which nobody did.

As part of the new children's basic training, they were briefed about the history of the war and SDZ, including the role of Katsu Fang, aka Takeru Takaishi. However, their briefing went back only to Katsu's arrival on the scene. No information was yet forthcoming on how he had lost his partner or why he had joined the Hunters...

As for Takeru himself, no news had been heard yet. As far as anyone could tell, he was no longer in Japan. Some Hunters and members of the government were busy digging for information on his last known whereabouts but offered no timetable as to when they expected to actually find something useful. Seemed the children would have to make do without him for now...

It was a frustrating position to be in. Despite the advantage of having so much free time to train, Hikari felt like the digidestined were trapped and immobile. They weren't armed to attack any of the spires they had located so they had to wait for the enemy to move first. Had the Kaiser tried to expand their territory the children could likely intercept whatever force was being sent, but there were no such attacks forthcoming.

Stalemate. Neither side could make a move without putting themselves in jeopardy, and unlike the reckless and arrogant invaders of Odaiba, the Kaiser was clearly smart enough to realize this. Without any openings to exploit, the digidestined had to resort to scouting, research, and simply waiting... hoping that the elusive opportunity would eventually present itself.

* * *

Ken sat at the corner terminal, poring over maps on a half-dozen screens, staring at them as if by doing so he might somehow divine the meaning of life. Behind him, Miyako was busy reviewing the entire archive of data that they had on digimon and the digital world. She didn't yet have the encyclopedic level of knowledge that Koushiro and Ken held, but she was catching up.

Most of her focus went toward the most recent research projects and the progress being made by Koushiro and his research team, but she occasionally took the time to go back and review some of the older work from the war too. She had initially expected the newest works to be the most complex, but soon enough she found it was quite the opposite. Koushiro was good, and his work was a full generation beyond what most people in the world could do, but the old project data from Katsu's R&D team? Some of that stuff was just... freaky. Doubly so once she realized that they still knew next to nothing about how most of their most vital tools worked. Even a year later nobody had the slightest clue what the barrier energy actually was, and studying the data on the crests and digivices was like trying to read an alien language...

As for Ken, his work varied between completely practical and highly eccentric. He handled much of the day to day work, overseeing the team records along with some help from Miyako and the Yagami siblings. When he had free time though, he spent most of it mapping – literally and metaphorically – all the happenings in the war. He already had a grid map of the digital world, each area marked by the presence of a gate terminal.

Seems whoever had placed them had not only been quite committed in their work, but systematic as well. After adjusting the grid parameters a few times, Ken eventually found a setup that allowed them to fit every single terminal in a different sector. Some were closer to the edges than others, but that was understandable considering the terminals were apparently placed more based on the local topography than the lines on the grid.

But that was just the beginning. He had a half dozen other maps of the war zones and spent a hours and sometimes whole days simply cross-referencing the data in search of patterns.

"Anything useful?"

Hikari asked as she approached the terminal, having just returned from her latest update with Yamato and Taichi about the stupidity of Hunter politics. She and her brother hadn't talked much about their argument since it happened, but they were able to work together... _fairly_ well in spite of it, so it wasn't a major concern right then.

"Not yet. I'm running a few predictive algorithms on the digimentals' locations, but I'm not coming up with anything definitive..."

"What are you trying to predict?"

Hikari looked over the maps quickly. There were at least three different maps all showing the locations of what were apparently digimentals... however, aside from the three they had recovered there were no consistencies between them.

"The locations of the others. Every digimental we have has the mark of a crest, but there are only three digimentals so far and there are eight crests. I can't help but think there might be more."

Hikari nodded. She'd had a similar thought a few times, but as no new digidestined had appeared since their first day, she simply dismissed it. Still... might be worth looking into.

"Just using the locations of the first three doesn't do any good, so I'm trying to include environmental factors. Terrain variations, notable landmarks... they've all been near fairly conspicuous locations. They were also each close to a terminal, but that could just be a coincidence..."

Hikari nodded again, just looking over the maps and trying to get a sense of the pattern for herself, though none of the locations that the system was predicting made any sense to her. Apparently she was a few degrees short of being able to think on the level of a computer.

She was about to simply leave Ken to his work when something suddenly caught her eye... a mark on one of the digimental maps. It was overlayed with the location of all the known terminals – nothing unusual there – but nearby was another map that was just the terminals, and that included one unusual point...

"What's this?"

Hikari motioned to the map in general, not noting the specific point just yet. She figured she could just be wrong about what she was looking at. Best not to jump to conclusions yet...

"That's a map of all the gate terminals. At least the ones we can connect to."

The terminals in question blanketed the Kaiser's territory and some of the sectors immediately beyond it. The children had heard some rumors from some of the digimon they met that there were inactive terminals further out and they had been intending to look into finding those and activating them if possible, just in case they might be useful in the future. Hikari already understood that well enough, but what she didn't understand...

"So these terminals are _all_ currently active?"

"Yeah... why?"

Hikari glanced over to the side map to double-check and make sure... then she pointed to the dot near where Miyako's digimental had been found.

"Because this one was destroyed when Miyako got stranded in the digital world that first time."

Ken froze and stared at the surprise dot for a few seconds before suddenly exploding to work, switching the system over from its predictive analysis to focus on the terminal grid again. Was it...

"You're right. That terminal is back. Slightly different location, but there definitely wasn't one there before."

Miyako had noticed the conversation and moved over to join them as well. She knew that area well... she had gone back to review it after returning to the human world in order to try to figure out if she could have done something better during the mission. Ultimately she concluded the answer was no, but it still unnerved her that things had gone so badly that first time.

"It's closer to the pyramid."

She muttered idly, double checking the map to confirm her suspicions, though she really didn't need to. Their map of the topography wasn't clear, but she knew the location relative to the surrounding areas and terminals. There was no doubt in her mind that it had moved closer.

"Which means it's in the woods now."

Ken answered before the group fell silent. They all understood the implications of that... it was better hidden now, and though it could have just been coincidence, they couldn't overlook the very likely possibility that it was deliberate.

"It was moved to be better concealed... the Kaiser wouldn't have done that. It helps us too much."

"So who else would? Who else _could_? Wizardmon and the resistance are here with us... who else could even _get_ there?"

Good question. Takeru was always an option, but could he evade the Kaiser's forces long enough to reach that area given how far he'd have to travel from the other sectors? There was also the mystery hacker, but Hikari wasn't going to mention them yet. Besides, she didn't even know what there was to _say_ about that situation...

"...let's find out."

Ken and Miyako reacted in the same way – with surprise and confusion. Find out? Just how did she intend to do _that_?

"Call Koushiro in here. We're going to the digital world to study that new terminal and figure out how it works. He made the first dozen, I want to know if this is just a copy or if they modified it somehow."

There were a few moments of silence as Ken and Miyako absorbed the info and worked out everything Hikari must have been thinking.

"If it was modified, the modifications could indicate how it was made or who did it... and also what their long-term goals might be for placing them."

Ken muttered and quickly got on the network to send work to Koushiro while Miyako got on her digivice to call the other children. Even if this was just a scouting mission, they weren't going into the digital world without at least two fighters. They'd made that mistake once before and they weren't doing it again. This time they would play it safe.

Hikari didn't say anything about her personal suspicions... specifically about Takeru. If he made the terminals, and especially if he did so in the human world, they would be able to tell by the tech. Digi-tech produced in the human world was still distinct from whatever was produced directly in the digital world, despite any similarities.

Eventually the team gathered. All the new children plus Koushiro and Hikari. She didn't think they really _needed_ everyone present, but Daisuke insisted that he and Iori both go due to the chance of being attacked. He wasn't convinced the new terminal wasn't placed by the Kaiser, and if it was there would almost certainly be an ambush waiting for them.

Oh well. At least he was thinking strategically. Even if his strategies ultimately boiled down to paranoia and preparing for a fight, it was still a step above the bull-charger tactics he started with.

* * *

As soon as they arrived, Veemon digivolved and Daisuke sent him to explore the immediate area for any sign of spies or ambush. Meanwhile, Koushiro and Miyako went to work taking apart the terminal, or at least removing the case to get a good look at the inside.

Both children were wired into Ken's comm systems, so they were relaying information back to him as they did so. All technical, well above the understanding of Hikari, and doubly so for Iori and Daisuke. All they needed was to know was that things were going smoothly so they could let the techies do their thing.

Finally, after Koushiro finished rattling off a few dozen terms that made no sense to the others, he and Miyako started putting the terminal back together, double checking quickly to make sure they didn't bump anything inside or screw it up so they would be able to get home.

"What's the verdict?"

Koushiro gave a quick command to Miyako and stood, leaving her to finish the reassembly while he stood and turned to Hikari.

"Looks like a duplicate of the terminals I built. Mine were built in our world, though. All the materials from this one were almost certainly produced in the digital world."

Hikari nodded and pondered the implications of that. It's possible it was just more convenient to produce the materials there, but only if they had a system like Koushiro's to code data directly into the digital world. However, that made her question why they copied a design that was made for tech from the human world...

"Anything else?"

"Some of the components have been modified. Mostly streamlined to be smaller or more efficient. The power supply especially, which is a bit of a surprise..."

"Why? I thought it was _easier_ to produce power in the digital world."

"It _is_. In the digital world, you can produce power just by writing together the correct sequence of digi-code symbols. That's the problem – my power supply was already _doing_ that. Streamlining it would require somebody know quite a bit about digi-code and digital tech in general. As much or more than _me_."

Everyone else was listening, of course, and they all understood what that implied. Both Daisuke and Iori were clearly uncomfortable with that news... Miyako didn't visible respond, but she was trying to take after Koushiro and Ken. Surprising? Sure. But she had to handle things professionally, not freak out as soon as something went wrong.

"How many people do you think could do something like that?"

Hikari already knew the answer, but she wanted final confirmation, plus any extra insight that Koushiro might have been able to offer.

"Including me? Three humans, and I don't know how many digimon. Natives of the digital world have an advantage from living here all their lives. _Datamon_ could have... of course he's dead now, but there are other machine types out there who could well know as much as he did."

That was _potentially_ a rather large number... but what he left unspoken was the matter of how many of those digimon would have been able to plant this terminal here in this forest, fairly deep in the Kaiser's territory. Hikari knew the numbers were still fairly few, and even fewer when they considered who among those were not simply able, but also _willing_ to do so.

Once the terminal was back together and working properly, the team jumped back to the human world quickly. They would discuss this more, but not somewhere that the Kaiser might find and attack them.

* * *

"So we have a mystery helper. Any idea who?"

Masaharu rarely had time to oversee any of the team meetings personally, but this one he made an exception for. Hikari had personally requested his presence due to the possibility of a link to the hacker. Since the rest of the children didn't know about that yet, she wanted to have someone else around who could share her train of thought.

"There's not a lot of options. Takeru is the only human other than us who could do it, but without one of the new digivices he has no way of getting into the digital world in the first place."

Koushiro had automatically written Takeru out of the equation once he got a good look at the interference that was blocking them out of the digital world. The boy was good, but even _he_ couldn't slip through something like that with just the resources they had in the human world.

"Could it be someone from the resistance?"

Ryo didn't actually expect the answer to be yes. If they had learned about someone who could do this kind of work before then they probably wouldn't even be having this meeting now.

"Well, since 'the resistance' basically means every digimon who's fighting against the Kaiser's takeover, definitely. We haven't heard about anyone who could actually do it, though."

"Not true."

Koushiro answered quickly after Yamato spoke. He had a contemplative expression on his face, which meant he still had no answers but he had a hunch, at least... and when it came to Koushiro, his hunches were better than most people's facts.

"There is another option, but it's neither a digimon nor a human... due to the interference in the digital world we haven't been able to make contact with him, but it's possible we could still be getting assistance from Gennai."

"What's Gennai been doing since the war ended?"

Technically, Sora didn't really know what Gennai was even doing _during_ the war. He always kept himself hidden and worked from the background so that they could never see his work directly. They all knew that he had been a great help to them, they just didn't know any of the specifics of how...

"I don't know. The last time I talked to him was just before we left on our trip. He was preparing another home in case he ever had to abandon the one he had. He expected another threat would appear eventually and he wanted to have a backup plan just in case. From what he told me, Myotismon found at least two of his safehouses and destroyed them. Luckily we won before he was able to get to the rest."

"So you think he's helping us against the Kaiser now?"

"It's possible... it's the most likely option I can think of, anyway."

Masaharu listened and pondered, occasionally glancing to Hikari and Ryo as the various ideas arose, particularly the one about Gennai. It didn't explain the inexplicable timing and other oddities, but it gave them something to consider, at least. Then when the children were done speaking, he interjected once more.

"Do you think we should try to make contact with him?"

"That's probably a bad idea."

Of all people, it was Iori who answered first. He wasn't one for strategy and tactics, but he understood good common sense. Given the way things were working out in the digital world, he could see why Gennai was keeping his head low.

"We've talked to a lot of digimon. They all know we're fighting the Kaiser. If Gennai wanted to talk to us, he could find a way. It's probably better to just let him keep hiding. Besides, for all we know finding him could help lead the Kaiser right to him."

"Hmm... valid point. Still, it's good to have options open. Koushiro, see about locating Gennai's old safehouses. Maybe he left behind some way to contact him. If he did, secure it and save it for future use. Keep it quiet, though... if we find anything, I don't want the Kaiser getting it and using it to track him down."

Koushiro nodded and made a quick note on his computer. Another project to work on... at least he wasn't going to get bored anytime soon.

With that the group dismissed and scattered again, each back to their own tasks. Training, research... despite the war being in a lull there was still plenty to do, and they didn't want to waste any of the free time they had now lest they suddenly find it all gone as the Kaiser decided to go on the offensive...

* * *

The days continued to pass with little activity from the Kaiser. The digidestined were still waiting for Koushiro to give final approval for his new sensors so they could go and start investigating the spires and rings, so they continued their quiet vigil. For Hikari it was borderline unbearable, but then she was also one of the few with nothing to do. The new children were all going through their basic training on survival and military protocol and the old children were the ones giving it... she was the one stuck in the middle, unable to help with much of anything until some news came. It was almost making her miss the mundane cycle of her normal school days...

"So what's new?"

Hikari muttered as she went through her usual afternoon routine of bugging Ken for info. She took a quick swig of some random soda that one of the other children had grabbed for her, finding she needed the caffeine just to stay focused anymore. Not that she had any problem handling fatigue... no, _her_ bane was simple boredom.

"Nothing. No news on Gennai or the digimentals. The Kaiser is still quiet."

From her usual position on Hikari's shoulder, Gatomon let out a sigh and rolled her head over slightly against Hikari's neck. She was just as bored with all this nothing that was going on, and unlike Hikari she didn't make an effort to try to conceal it.

"Get anything from your cartography?"

Ken shrugged. Admittedly he wasn't expecting much from it yet. Drawing patterns from data was rather useless without the actual data to draw from.

"I'm running a predictive algorithm on the Kaiser's defenses in his deeper territory based on geographical and topographical data."

"Aren't all the defenders put around the spires?"

"So far, but we've only scouted the outer territory. It could be different in the core. Besides, the terrain in that area is a bit different. Very rocky, a lot of choke points."

Hikari raised a brow and took another drink, questioning how useful choke points would be when all the terminals in the heart of the Kaiser's territory were still active. They could just jump right by the defenses to get wherever they wanted. Then again, Myotismon had pulled a trick and tried to trap the children by taking down the network, so maybe the Kaiser was waiting for something similar.

"So where's the core, you think?"

Ken tapped a few buttons and up came another map. The territory lines the enemy held were there as normal, but there was also a terrain map overlayed with it, with lines marking a section out from the desert near the center of- wait a minute... what? A desert?

"Why would the enemy put their base in the middle of the desert?"

"Harder to reach?"

Ken shrugged. He wasn't about to make predictions about the enemy's plans without the data. All he could do was run the numbers. Unlike the invasion of Odaiba, he had very little to work with this time.

Ken's reaction wasn't nearly as interesting to Hikari as her partner's. As soon as Hikari mentioned the desert Gatomon perked up, raising her head to inspect the map with greater focus. Right in the center of the desert, surrounded by rocky plateaus and bottlenecks. That sounded a lot like...

"Hikari... I think that's where the pyramid was."

The... what? The pyramid was at the edge of a forest, near the destroyed terminal, not in the middle of a desert.

Sensing Hikari's confusion, Gatomon elaborated, bringing back a reminder of the conversation they'd held with Takeru a full year before.

"Etemon's base."

Hikari's eyes suddenly lit up, first with realization and then with concern. Etemon's... but why? Why would anyone build a new base out there? The base had been the core and control center for the entire dark network, but that network had been completely dismantled already. There was nothing there worth using.

Still, the facts were undeniable. The core of the Kaiser's territory was set very close to where Etemon's pyramid fortress had been, if not actually at the same location.

"Ken, Miyako... call the team."

* * *

"Why would the Kaiser build a base _there_? I don't even know why _Etemon_ built there."

Taichi muttered, more ranting than asking an actual question. He didn't like being reminded of the war... brought back bad memories.

"Etemon controlled the dark network that covered the desert and spanned most of the continent. Putting his base somewhere out of the way made sense since it was the hub from which he controlled everything. I assume the Kaiser's reasoning is the same. That area doesn't have many native digimon, so nobody would really know what was going on out there."

"And by the time anyone learned about what the Kaiser was doing, they'd already be on their way to taking over the digital world."

Yamato muttered as Koushiro worked through a series of maps on the big screen. Good thing they got approval to have that installed. It was clearly going to come in handy for briefing the team.

"Exactly. Now... we don't know for certain that the Kaiser actually has a base there. Could be this is just a red herring. However, if there _is_ something there then we need to go find out. It could help us strike a decisive blow and dramatically shorten this war."

"What if the Kaiser's waiting for us? That's at the heart of enemy territory. They could have ambushes set up, or they could have the terminals rigged to destroy once we arrive."

By now people were used to Hikari and Koushiro heading up any operation. Hikari was the field leader and Koushiro was their head adviser... Taichi and Yamato had their own say in things, of course, but they had each taken a back seat in decision making ever since the throw-down between the Yagami siblings. Yamato was more than happy to let Hikari run things herself since she was the one in the field, and Taichi was still feeling awkward to try to take the lead again...

Still, the boy wasn't idle, and he was doing his part to take care of the team whenever he could.

"We have that taken care of."

Catching everyone's attention, Taichi pulled a soldier pack up onto the table, opening it to reveal... a gate terminal?

"We've set up a stockpile of emergency terminals. Hikari, you'll be taking this with you. If your escape route is destroyed, get to safety, switch this on and get out as fast as possible."

"When did we start making those?"

"Right after we heard what happened to Miyako."

Jou and Yamato piped in quickly before the attention was back to Hikari. She stepped forward to inspect the device, making sure she understood how it worked. If there was any complicated technical crap to deal with she'd need Miyako's help but... no, it looked simple enough.

Shooting her brother a wary glance, she seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. Some special terms or orders for out in the field in order to be allowed to go... nothing came though. Taichi's eyes were still dull, quiet... they didn't have the fire of the old Taichi. While that was welcome for the first few days after their argument, it was starting to bother her now.

Damn it, Tai, what the hell is wrong with you?

"So our team for this operation will be the standard four, plus Wizardmon. The main objective is to locate any base the Kaiser might have in the area. The secondary is to investigate the ruins of Etemon's old base, if any still remain. This is to be treated as a standard scouting mission with extra danger and multiple targets to investigate. Any questions?"

Nothing. Not that Koushiro had expected there to be. The new children were familiar enough with these missions by now. They were still probably unprepared for a serious fight, but this wasn't supposed to be one of those... hopefully they'd be able to do their job and get out without incident.

Hikari grabbed the pack and zipped it up, pulling it around her shoulders as she headed down to the departure platform.

"Alright. Make sure to pre-evolve on the platform before we go. I want everybody to be ready in case we're walking into an ambush."

* * *

Hikari was almost disappointed to find there was nothing waiting for them when they arrived. A split second after they were all through, Wizardmon masked them and they moved from the terminal to the side of a nearby outcropping to hide in the shadows. Not they _needed_ to hide with the spell covering them, but it was good to get out of the sun at least.

"So where are we going?"

Daisuke muttered over to Miyako, who was busy checking the mini-map Koushiro had uploaded to her cellphone.

"West. There's a few different paths leading there. We'll have to find our way through to get to the clearing where the base used to be."

"Alright, split up. Miyako, you go to the air and scout ahead for enemies. The rest of us will stay on the ground and find a path through to the base."

Despite the perpetual lack of enemies, Hikari was still being extra careful to try to spot any potential scouts or ambushes. The constant lack of response from the Kaiser wherever they went was starting to grate on her nerves. This was the kind of behavior she expected from an enemy that was trying to lure them into a false sense of security, and the longer it went on the more she anticipated that overwhelming force appearing to try and wipe them out...

Miyako nodded and climbed on her partner's back to take to the air. Wizardmon led the way through the rocks, being more familiar with this area than most of the others. A few minutes later, their path brought them to a familiar tunnel...

Hikari had never seen this place before but she knew it well from Takeru's description. This was the same place where he had found his crest, and the tunnel beyond was where he first discovered the digi-code. However, at the end of the tunnel was something she wasn't expecting... an exit leading out the far side.

"The children used this tunnel in the first war to spy on Etemon's base. This should take us right to it."

Wizardmon quickly explained, leaving out the details about his visit to this place with Takeru. Hikari said nothing either... nobody knew she had any knowledge of that and she was still wary of revealing too much about it. If they learned what Takeru had told her then they would want to know more, and some of those things were too... _personal_ to divulge to anyone.

What they discovered on the other side was as disappointing as everything else so far. Nothing there. If there were any ruins, they were now completely buried in the sand. On top of that, there was also no enemies, no spire... just nothing.

It made no sense. This was the heart of the Kaiser's territory and there was _nothing here_? What the hell was going on?

"Could there be something underground?"

Iori asked and Digmon raised his arms, motioning that he was ready to dig right down through the debris to locate anything that might be down there.

"There _could_ be, but wouldn't the Kaiser have to have a way to get down there as well?"

Wizardmon's answer did nothing to deter Digmon's enthusiasm. After all, this was what they were sent here for, right? Why not just make their own way down and see for themselves?

Before he had a chance to do so Miyako returned, landing near the team and quickly dismounting Halsemon. She seemed fairly calm, but Hikari recognized right away that she was... shaken by something.

"No enemies in sight... no spire, either. This whole area is deserted."

Nothing, but still she was shaken? What did she see then?

"Was there anything else out there?"

Miyako nodded but didn't explain. Glancing up, she looked to the edge of the plateau above them.

"Digmon... think you can make a path up to there? You guys are gonna want to see this..."

Okay, Miyako's silence was worse than any warning she could give. Normally she would just outright say what she had found, but if it was something she insisted on showing them directly, it had to be big.

On the other hand, this was finally something of note. No more nothing from the Kaiser. They'd actually found something useful. That was a relief to Hikari. Better to know the enemy than to have to keep wondering.

Cutting out a path up to the summit broke the stealth and made Digmon visible, but with no enemies around it didn't cause any major issue. Before long the digimon had dug out a tunnel curving up to the top of the plateau and the children emerged to search for some sign of whatever the... hell was _that_?

Well, now they knew what had happened to Etemon's old base.

Far in the distance, past several more of the large rock outcroppings, was a massive fortress high above the rest of the desert. Too high to have been built normally... and from the looks of it, Hikari was pretty sure the damn thing was actually flying. The base of it was an enormous, inverted pyramid shape which she could only figure was the ruins of Etemon's base taken and rebuilt for the Kaiser's use.

There was a second pyramid at the top of it as well, which accounted for the underground section of the structure. However, that only gave Hikari more questions... somehow the Kaiser had uprooted the entire base from underground and put it on top of their own fortress? How the hell was that even _possible_?

Between the two pyramid sections was what was apparently the core of the fortress. At the corners were four massive stone pillars, each anywhere from several hundred to a thousand feet tall. It was hard to get any exact measurements from so far away, but they were clearly enormous. Between them was what appeared to be the main fortress, stretching the full distance between the two pyramids. The core structure wasn't just a massive slab of stone as the children could see faint signs of balconies, windows and the like, but it was hard to get any sense of the architecture from so far away.

"It's mobile... I got close enough to see it moving."

Miyako muttered. This didn't do much to catch the rest of the team off guard though. Just seeing that base was enough to do that on its own. Anything else she said was just topping to go with what they'd already seen.

"...how does someone even _build_ something like that?"

Even putting the whole mobile-and-flying bit aside, that thing was completely _insane_. As tall as some skyscrapers, and at least twice as wide. Daisuke couldn't imagine how someone could even get the materials for that without taking apart a mountain... hell, for all he knew that's exactly what the Kaiser did.

Hikari ignored the question, mostly because it didn't matter now. They could work out the hows and whys later. Right now they had more important things to deal with. Getting away quickly was one, but before that, there was one peculiarity she noted about the structure...

"Did you see anything silver on it?"

There was no shine from where they were standing... maybe there was something on the other side, but it looked pretty symmetrical. Doubtful there would be something on the back... doubtful there even _was_ a back, for that matter.

"No, nothing... though it's definitely big enough to fit a spire inside it, or... _fifty_."

Hm... good point. Could be at the core of the base, could be hidden in the pillars on the corners... might not even be there at all. Impossible to say without knowing the purpose of the spires in the first place. Hard to imagine that with all the silver cosmetics the Kaiser was using that there wouldn't be _something_ in or on the base though.

"We need to get back and report this. We're definitely not ready to attack that thing yet..."

Iori muttered and motioned for Digmon to start heading back down the path. He wasn't trying to take command, but he sure wasn't going to hang around here where there might be danger. Sure, the area was deserted, but if the Kaiser had somehow detected their excavation there could be forces coming soon. With a fortress that size, doubtful it wasn't filled with defenders, at least some of which were fliers.

None of the other children argued with his logic. The whole team double checked their stealth and quickly filed in behind him. Miyako took the air as usual, scouting the quickest path back to the terminal so they could get the hell out of this region as fast as possible.

So much for their preemptive strike on the Kaiser's base. Seems they would have to find some other weak point to exploit.

* * *

The response to the news was about as somber as the team expected. It seemed that every bit of intel the children discovered only made their situation seem that much worse. The Kaiser had their outnumbered, outgunned, and was intent not to give them any openings to strike at. To make it worse, it was clear that whoever it was had access to resources far beyond what they had expected. That fortress was only the beginning... what else had the enemy constructed throughout the desert region that they knew nothing about yet?

Koushiro was starting to wonder if the reason why the Kaiser went quiet wasn't because they were waiting for the children to strike first after all... if the enemy had access too all these resources, perhaps they simply didn't _need_ to expand. If the goal wasn't domination of the entire digital world, maybe the Kaiser already _had_ everything needed to achieve whatever their objective was.

"So what do we do? If the enemy's content to just sit on their empire..."

"We hit first."

Daisuke cut off Sora as she prepared to verbally lay out their options. Screw that. They were at war and they were going to _win_. If the enemy wasn't moving, they'd have to _be_ moved. Either way, Daisuke sure as hell weren't going to accept a stalemate.

Of course, not everyone shared this sentiment.

"Charging in is suicide. There's still only three of you, and you don't have any experience handling a serious fight yet."

A year later, Yamato had gone from countering Taichi's recklessness to countering Daisuke's. Seems there would always be a charger in their group, ready and eager to take on impossible odds.

"Well, we're sure as hell not gonna just _sit_ here!"

"Daisuke, this isn't the last war. It's not like we're out fighting in the streets."

"No, not if we don't actually get out there and _do something_."

"This is an _offensive_ war! We can't treat it like we did the last one. The enemy is fortified – if they overwhelm us we won't be able to just run away."

"Screw running! We're digidestined, we're here to fight."

"Shut up, Daisuke!"

Miyako finally cut in, silencing both the boys right off.

"Idiots... charger tactics versus defensive planning. Neither one is going to solve this! We _do_ have to attack but we have to do it right, so both of you just sit down, shut up, and listen while the _smart people_ figure out the solution."

Miyako wasn't usually one to get so worked up. She wasn't actually the most confident person when surrounded by all these war veterans, but she had limits to how much she was willing to put up with too. Koushiro and Ken were the ones who were making more progress toward giving them an actual solution than anyone else. Everybody needed to be listening to them, not coming up with stupid plans and ignoring their advice.

"How long until the new sensors are finished?"

Ken followed up with a pause. No leaving everyone with time to react to Miyako's rant. They didn't have time, and it was better just to ignore it and let them work it out in their own time anyway. For what problems it caused, it was far better for Hikari and Taichi to have had their dispute after the team meeting, not during it...

Koushiro sighed, shaking his head. That was the more frustrating topic anyone could bring up right now.

"I don't know. The sensors work fine in _this_ world, but in the digital world _everything_ is data. If we could just determine how to filter out the junk data we could be done in an hour, but with the way it's going now..."

He fell silent for a moment, weighing the options in his head. They needed to act soon, but they weren't ready. Not ready _enough_... but then again, when were they ever? They'd had to make do with half-working equipment and plans more often than not before. He'd hoped that they'd have a better time of it in this war, but apparently some things never change.

"Alright, to hell with it. I'll pull what copies of the current version we have and set them up for field deployment. We'll refine the design as we go, but we need data on the Kaiser _now_. Just give me a couple days to get everything ready."

No protests from anywhere at the table. It wasn't exactly safe, but it was necessary, and more than a few of the children had been itching for a chance to actually get out in the field and make something happen. What protests could be offered wouldn't have made a difference anyway... in the end, they all knew this had to be done.

Their priority now was making sure they were ready and survived what was coming. Using these sensors would mean they'd have to get close to the spires or, at the very least, close to the digimon with the rings. Either way, they first had to make sure they got back in one piece if they wanted to improve their tactics for the next time around.

Unfortunately, experience was still the best teacher. Training could help, but in the end the new children had to actually get into a real fight if they wanted to learn how to do it better. Not just grabbing a digimental and running away... a fight that they were in to _win_.

Two days... then they were going to get their first taste of real war.


	8. Razor's Edge

Remember to check the top of my profile page for a link to the Digital Hazard forum, made by Swords and Roses. Updates and background story info will be regularly posted there.

A/N: Alright, first, a _huge_ apology for the delays. My life suddenly got super busy and I wasn't able to do nearly as much work on this fic. Details on the forum. Also, this chapter was a bit... odd for me. In addition to time issue, I've started adjusting my writing a little bit. A friend of mine pointed out a few weak points in my style and I'm working to improve on them, but it's a tad awkward trying to make that kind of adjustment mid-story and especially mid-chapter. I tried to be careful to make sure that it didn't disrupt the general flow of things, but it might still be odd in a couple places. Apologies if it is.

Chapter 8: Razor's Edge

**Perhaps a hero is someone who doesn't register his own vulnerability. Is it courage, then, if you're too daft to know you're mortal?**

Hikari had no idea what to think of the monument marking the anniversary of the war's end once it was unveiled. Truthfully, none of the digidestined did. They had all known there would be an event to mark the day, but they hadn't quite known what to expect. The monument itself had been produced by a private artist on request from the local officials, so nobody in the Hunters was privy to what it would actually be. Nobody who said anything about it, anyway...

The scene was of two angels back to back, one male, one female. The first knelt with his head bowed and hand up so as to completely conceal his face. Behind him, the woman stood tall, weapons at the ready. In one hand was a bow, aimed forward at some unseen enemy, and in the other was a long rod.

Hikari wondered if Masaharu had anything to do with this, given that few others could have known enough to have everything made to paint such a perfect picture of the war. Even the rod in the angel woman's hand... she had taken up the weapon of the angel man. Of course, the artist had taken some liberties with their appearance, so they were completely different from how the real Angemon and Angewoman looked. Still, there was no denying the intent behind them.

All the first generation digidestined were present for the memorial event save Takeru, who had Ken there to take his place. Still no word, even on this day... Hikari had to wonder just what was important enough to keep him away from _this_. Couldn't he have at least contacted them and said hi? Hell, even a blank email would have been preferable to total silence...

The ceremonies of the event were short, which was a plus. Better for all the digidestined that way, as the entire event was overshadowed by the knowledge that they would soon be invading the Kaiser's territory. Whether that was the original plan or whether things had been shortened, nobody knew. However, it was notable that all the television and radio people avoided the children the entire time, and once the event was over the speakers left quickly...

They still remembered Nakamoto. They still remembered Myotismon... the news of the new children and their digimon had spread throughout the city and the world, putting everyone on edge. Still, the reaction was nowhere near what any of the children had expected. The internet was abuzz with talk about it, of course, but publicly everything was quiet. Nobody knew what the new children were up to except that they spent a lot of time at the Hunter base.

The Hunters were keeping a tight lid on everything, even to the point of isolating the children's families from any media attention. They were determined not to let spread any information about the fighting unless it somehow managed to get to the human world, and so far they seemed to be doing a good job of it. Of course, one of the side effects of that and the resulting public ignorance was that, since nobody knew what was going on, everybody was being extra careful and paranoid. Nobody wanted to be near the first attack of a new invasion if and when it started.

All the gen-two children spent the event time prepping for the mission. They had spent the last two days doing combat training exercises against each other to sharpen their skills. It wasn't enough to truly prepare them, but at least they would be in a fighting mindset once the time came.

Once the gen-one children were back at the base they all quickly changed into their uniforms and got set up for the mission. Everything would be called in for this. A backup gate terminal kept on-hand, all the digidestined in both worlds wired into Ken's comm systems, emergency medical personnel on standby in the SDZ command room... they'd even have several extra resistance members going with them.

Several of the smaller creatures, such as a couple gotsumon and otamamon were accompanying the children as scouts to help keep watch for trouble from a distance, and Pumpkinmon was there to support and protect the scouts, as well to serve as a distraction if the fighting went south. Andromon was the most important member of the team though, as he would be linked up to all the senors that Koushiro sent with them. He'd keep track of all the data they accumulated and, once they had everything they needed, call for a retreat.

The job of picking a target was left up to Miyako while the other children were at the ceremony. Not that she was given much choice... or rather, she was given _too much_ choice. There were no visible factors that made any target more or less favorable. In the end, the only difference between any of the sites was the terrain. With the exception of the main base that they hadn't seen the defenses of, every target was exactly the same – heavily fortified, usually on a high plateau or hill.

The Kaiser knew the digidestined couldn't wait forever... or, at the very least, that they _wouldn't_. They had to attack, and thus every site was secured well enough to ensure that they had to attack in the worst possible conditions. The enemy was determined that when the attack came it would be on _their_ terms and not the children's.

So Miyako was left to decide based solely on the environment. Granted, the exact composition of the digimon at each site differed as they were usually defended entirely by the former locals of the area. However, that still didn't make a major difference since in every case the children were vastly outnumbered. Additionally, there were never any fliers to be found on guard. She figured that was because they were all working as scouts or attacking as swarms, like when she first obtained her digimental.

Ugh... _bees_.

In the end, she settled on a familiar site, though it was familiar only to Daisuke. The spire near his digimental was in the center of a village surrounded by woods. The children could use that surrounding terrain to hide in, and since their digivices could pick up anything with a ring the enemy wouldn't have the same advantage. They just had to be careful...

As for the actual village, there was no real risk of damaging it since they weren't intending to take on the entire enemy force in the first place. They wanted the rings, not the spire. Once they had figured out what they were dealing with then they could mount an attack on one of the spires.

There was no special briefing or formality before deployment. No hard plan beyond what they already knew... they wanted to keep this mission as fluid as possible. On arrival the children immediately scattered and started scouting the nearby woods with the help of their digimon friends. Miyako was cloaked by Wizardmon and sent to the air to check the condition of the defenses around the spire. Hikari began setting up several stationary sensor devices in the woods around the path while Andromon started linking everything together so he could monitor it.

Area, clear. Sensors, ready. Resistance, hiding in the woods. Enemy... waiting.

Hikari spent a minute double checking to see if there was any other way they could prepare, but there was nothing. This was the best they could do... it would have to be enough.

There was no denying the anxiety all the children felt going into this. The metaphorical training wheels were finally coming off and now they were going to see what they were really made of. The gen-two children were still fairly enthusiastic in spite of the danger... Iori less so, but that was his nature. Hikari, though... she was the worst off of anyone. Something about all this felt... wrong. It felt like... like... hell, what _did_ it feel like?

It felt like they were being watched. Like the Kaiser was waiting for them. All their plans, all their preparation... everything going off without a hitch. Everything was going _too_ well...

It was that deafening silence that continued to permeate every corner of the Kaiser's territory. The enemy was facing the digidestined, the ones who had defeated Etemon and Myotismon. As a team they were arguably the most dangerous people in the entire human world, yet in spite of that the Kaiser was just sitting there, letting them take their time and move into the most ideal position.

Hikari wanted to believe that was just arrogance, but a little voice in the back of her head – one that sounded suspiciously like Katsu – told her otherwise... it told her to assume the worst. More often than not, the worst possible scenario was the right one.

There was nothing they could do about it though. They had to attack, and the time was now. Hiding a sigh, Hikari turned to Gatomon for a little boost of confidence before standing from the brush and stepping out to approach the team that was waiting on the path. Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, Wizardmon...

Hikari tapped the mic on her comm unit a couple times.

"Everyone at base, get ready. We're deploying. Taichi, make the call."

There was a pause while the team waited for the incoming command. Taichi was taking longer than expected... perhaps a side-effect of his recent bout of low confidence. Eventually he popped into the comm though, making a final check even though it was unnecessary.

"Everybody ready?"

His grim tone made it clear he wasn't looking forward to what was coming next, but as any good leader would, he'd take command once more. First time doing so from the human world for the new team... and hopefully not the last.

Confirmations sounded off one after another, starting with Daisuke and ending with Hikari. Time to go. Taichi sucked in a deep breath to steady himself... then they were off.

"Everyone, digivolve. Daisuke, Flamedramon, get to the bushes at the edge of the village. Miyako, Halsemon, go up. Find the biggest enemies in the village that you get an easy shot at their rings. Hit them and then pull back to the woods. Iori, Digmon, get on the main path just past the sensors. Everyone else except the scouts, get to the surrounding brush near Iori and be ready to ambush."

Halsemon shot up out of the trees as they reached the village, finding the biggest stand-out targets of the enemies and firing two successive laser-eye shots to take them out.

"Bulls-eye! I'm pulling back!"

"Any pursuit?"

Sora chimed in. She was Miyako's direct support for this mission... less geeky but just as much of a tomboy. Nobody on the team knew more about charging into danger head first except Taichi.

"A dozen so far, and looks like more on the way!"

"Daisuke, find the biggest targets and shoot them down before they hit the woods, then pull back toward Iori. Draw them in."

"Iori, you're the wall. Don't let any enemies slip past you. Keep them in the sensor net."

Taichi and Yamato ordered in quick succession. Attack, defense... keep it balanced.

Flamedramon fired several waves of fireballs in the pack of enemies. Not all of them hit the rings, but they were clustered tightly enough that at least three or four went down.

"Second pack on the way – looks like another dozen!"

Miyako called out, already heading back around toward the village, predicting the next order.

"Intercept! Snipe the rings! Cut down their numbers before they reach Daisuke!"

Sora had the right idea, but as always, a plan never survives actual battle...

"Negative. Aerial scouts spotted from the south, on their way here."

Wizardmon was perhaps the only voice on the team who wasn't on edge. Somehow he managed to maintain his clam in spite of the battle. Then again, he'd lived stuck in Myotismon's army for a year or two... keeping a cool head was the only reason he was still alive.

"_Already?_ How many?"

"Looks like three... maybe four. Bigger targets."

"Miyako, intercept the enemies in the air! Keep them away from Iori!"

Hikari checked her digivice as Sora and Wizardmon made their quick exchange, noting the bulk numbers of the enemies coming from the front. Miyako could guard them from behind, but now Daisuke was outnumbered. This was bad.

'Already', Sora had said... and she was right. This _was_ too soon. Unnatural. The Kaiser was ready for them. It was even worse considering the dozens of potential targets they could have had. How was it the enemy was waiting for them _here_?

Only one possible answer... the Kaiser knew they were coming. _Shit._

"Wizardmon, cloak us!"

Everyone heard Hikari's order but nobody understood the reason, Before they could ask she was darting off through the brush, heading directly toward the approaching enemy cluster.

"Hikari, what are you _doing_?"

"Helping Daisuke. There's too many for him to take on alone."

"Wha- Hikari, Gatomon's not strong enough to attack a force like that! You'll be overwhelmed!"

Same typical worry from her brother. Hikari was expecting that and she was ignoring it now... they were in the thick of the fighting, they couldn't afford to wait for Daisuke to thin them out in his own before she joined the fight.

"Get behind them."

Jou suddenly cut in over the comm. Not the usual strategic adviser, but he knew how to fight as well as the rest of them.

"The enemy's trying to split our attention – do the same to them!"

"Roger!"

Hikari ducked under some low-lying branches and glanced out to the nearby path, noting Daisuke and his partner directly ahead with the enemies waiting not too much further down the path. It wasn't hard to slip past unnoticed given the noise Daisuke and Flamedramon were making. Unfortunately, it wasn't until Gatomon was jumping out into the path to surround the enemies that Mimi cut in.

"Wait, what about the second pack?"

Oh crap. Hikari didn't even think about them until Gatomon was already attacking the first enemy and becoming visible. She hadn't surrounded the enemy at all, she'd gotten _herself_ surrounded...

"Gatomon! Get out of there!"

"Flamedramon, charge!"

What the hell? Daisuke's partner was suddenly jumping over the first group to join Gatomon in the fray. Now they were _both_ surrounded!

"Daisuke, what are you _doing_?!"

Hikari almost had to ask a second time as she looked to find him and suddenly realized... Daisuke was actually running into the pack as well. The enemy digimon hadn't even noticed him until he kicked one of them in the head and sent it flying into a nearby tree.

Good aim... a side effect of all that soccer practice, no doubt. On the other hand, _WAS HE INSANE?!_

"DAISUKE! YOU CAN'T FIGHT THEM! GET AWAY FROM THERE!"

Too late. The first pack was already turning on him. They left Gatomon and Flamedramon to be dealt with by the second group that had just reached them, instead targeting the completely undefended Daisuke as he turned to run away. Thankfully, the boy's sprinting was just as good as his aim and he was able to stay ahead of them, albeit barely.

Run, you idiot... run like your life depends on it. Right now it absolutely _does_...

Hikari didn't follow. No point... she couldn't help Daisuke as it was anyway. Besides, she needed to stay with Gatomon and Flamedramon and report from that location in case things got bad. Maybe she could call Miyako over to help them fight off the pack...

"I've got like... six enemies right behind me! Leading them right to you, Iori!"

Daisuke shouted into his comm with probably a little too much enthusiasm. He was still enjoying the chance to be in a real fight despite the mortal danger trailing only a few feet behind him. Of course, the younger boy could already see him in the distance... running for his stupid life with no partner to protect him.

"Daisuke, you're an _idiot!_"

As if there was anyone who didn't know that by now, but Iori felt it needed saying at least once before he saved the idiot's sorry ass...

Digmon stood back for a moment, launching several of his drills at the enemies from a distance to try to take them down. He got one, but the rest slipped by... unfortunately, his best trait was brute strength. He didn't have the best agility or accuracy of the team. Of course, they'd accounted for that shortcoming when they first came to the area... but they also assumed that Flamedramon would be there _helping_ him.

Once the enemies were inside the range of the sensor net Digmon charged, meeting them in the center to hold them there. He hadn't lost sight of their main mission... even if they won, without the data the whole mission was pointless.

Daisuke ducked and rolled under Digmon's arm, hoping that the big, armored bug would be able to intercept the enemies. He did so... _mostly_. After all, four out of five isn't bad, right?

On the other hand... even one digimon attacking a human with nothing to protect them was _very_ bad.

Hikari and several others on the team flinched at the sound of Daisuke screaming over the comm. The gen-one team, which had been mostly silent once the fighting started getting worse, was suddenly a storm of shouts, orders, and other garbled nonsense that none of the new children could even make out what with all of them talking over each other.

"Magical game!"

Iori briefly thought to himself that turning Daisuke invisible would be much more useful if there _wasn't_ a little lizard-thing with its jaw latched onto his left arm. Fortunately, a ball of lighting promptly knocking the creature off and into the brush took care of that problem. Iori could still see where Daisuke was though, if only due to the trail of blood that became visible as it hit the dirt beneath him.

"Resistance, attack!"

Instantly, every digimon except Andromon rushed out and swarmed the attackers, pinning them and ripping apart the rings in a few short seconds. Loss of data? Sure. Did Wizardmon care? Not a bit.

"Hikari, get everyone back here. Daisuke's bleeding heavily – we need to get him back to your world immediately."

"I'm _trying_! There's still too many enemies left, and more are on the way!"

"The air is clear! I'm on my way to help!"

Miyako! Oh, thank god... might still be hard, though. Over a dozen enemies against only two main fighters? Gatomon could help, but she couldn't take on the big ones, and there were plenty of big ones here...

"Miyako, be careful! There might still be too many! Don't-"

"Do a flyby."

For the first time Ken was heard over the comm, silencing the rest of the gen-one children that were talking in the background as he did so. Back in the human world, where none of the gen-two children could see, he had stood and moved into the midst of the team, turning his back on all the consoles and sweeping his hair back out of his face.

He had the look of a hawk now... a predator with his eyes locked firmly on his prey. It was notable that he was the only one not looking at their field data anymore. He wasn't looking at _any_ of the data, in fact. His face was toward the wall but his eyes reflected that he was still thinking processing everything that was happening. He had simply abandoned the computers and moved on to doing it all in his head.

"What are you talking about?"

"Fly low, hit the enemies, and keep going. Go after the spire."

"What? Ken, there's still too many-"

"Go! After! The spire! And make sure the enemies _see_ you do it!"

Silence. Was he _insane_? They didn't even know what the spires were _for_! If they didn't matter then the enemies would just ignore her, if they did then she'd have every enemy in the region on her tail!

"Roger!"

Miyako finally shouted back as Halsemon dove into the trees, firing several shots into the enemy cluster to break them up and give Gatomon and Flamedramon a chance to run. Then she kept going, heading straight down the path toward the captured village.

Hikari turned and ran off with Gatomon and Flamedramon. She was still invisible and had no risk of being attacked, thus she took a moment to look back and see what effect Miyako's ruse might have had. For a few seconds it seemed like it did nothing, but finally it dawned on the enemies that she wasn't coming back. She was still going... right by them and toward the center of their fortified position. Oh yeah, and she was in the air so she could fly over most of the defenders on the way. All she had to do was dodge their attacks long enough to reach the spire...

Several of the creatures howled and roared, breaking off from the main pack to rush back. All the fastest ones, fortunately... leaving roughly half the previous attackers, and with no backup coming to help them anymore. Much better odds.

"Half the group is following her!"

"Hikari, we still need more data. Bring the rest of the digimon to the sensor net, don't hit them early."

Wizardmon muttered as he and Pumpkinmon helped Daisuke stumble back toward the terminal while Iori and Digmon steeled themselves for the final wave. Hikari shouted the orders to the partners near her, determined to get this over and done quickly. They needed to get Daisuke back home as fast as possible...

"Miyako, once all the enemies following you are out of the woods, turn back and head straight to the terminal. Hikari, Iori, you go too. Once we have the data, make sure you're ready to flee as soon as all the enemy rings are down."

"They should send Daisuke back now so we can get him treated."

"Will Flamedramon be able to fight without him there?"

Ken's voice and gaze were cold, but there was no denying his logic. Jou didn't like it, but he knew Ken had a point... if they lost a fighter now, there was a chance someone _else_ could get hurt. They needed everyone in full form until the very end.

Back with Digmon, most of the resistance had fled from the path and were already going to join Daisuke and Iori. The few that remained behind were simply waiting to grab the sensor modules before they ran like hell.

Fortunately, the digimon partners were ready for the final enemies... especially Flamedramon. Daisuke had gotten hurt in the fighting, and unlike the way some of the other digimon might have reacted he didn't get worried... he got _pissed_.

"Heads up!"

Flamedramon shouted just as he and Gatomon reached the sensor net. Once they were through and the enemies came into range behind them he jumped up slightly, aiming to land on Digmon's head. Without missing a beat the bug ducked, catching Flamedramon before suddenly rising, using his whole body throw Flamedramon upward and sending him back-flipping over the cluster of enemies

Flamedramon fired down a series of shots from mid-air, shattering two rings along the way. As he came down his body coiled up and his claws dug into the ground, gaining him the leverage to launch himself into the back of the group.

Digmon smashed two of the rings with his front drills before shoving the digimon that had them forward and tackling the cluster, breaking them right down the middle and leaving them momentarily dazed and confused. In the midst of that confusion Flamedramon twisted and unleashed an inferno on all sides, striking everything he could see. Digimon, rings, trees, it didn't matter. The fire wasn't enough to set the whole forest ablaze and even if it was, he was too damn angry to care...

"Necessary data recovered. All forces, retreat immediately."

Andromon uttered in his mechanical monotone, standing from his position hidden in the bushes as he picked up the first of the sensor boxes and started back toward the terminal, grabbing another along the way. As he did the rest of the terminals were picked up by Gatomon and several members of the resistance. Now all that was left was the enemies...

"Digmon! Get back to the terminal!"

Iori called his partner away from the melee, having spotted Miyako in the distance only a moment before. She was on her way back with Halsemon and, with the chaos Flamedramon had already caused, they would be able to finish the rest of the enemies out on their own.

Miyako was almost disappointed when she got back. She'd been hoping for more of a fight to deal with. Instead she spotted only a single ring among all the digimon in the group. A quick laser-eye was enough to take care of that, and the few rings she couldn't see were dealt with in a storm of fire being launched from the angry lizard in the center of the fray.

"Grab on!"

Miyako shouted as they flew by, picking up Flamedramon and swooping away toward the terminal, joining the rest of the resistance just as they arrived.

All the partners immediately devolved and the whole group jumped back to the human world. Hopefully the platform would be clear as they had no time to report their success to the gen-one team. They were already late as it was...

* * *

The moment Daisuke's feet hit the ground there were Hunter medical personnel on either side of him, hoisting him up onto a stretcher to cart him out of the room. Jou had tossed aside his comm unit and was already busy on one of the terminals before the team ever arrived, calling up the base medical staff to report the emergency.

"-one digidestined on the way to the infirmary. Subject has severe bite and or laceration marks on one arm and is bleeding heavily. Inform the surgery team, have a DESBED ready and make sure there's a chopper on standby in case an emergency transfer to the hospital is necessary."

Jou was no doctor, but he knew how to handle a crisis like one... as soon as he knew the medical personnel had everything under control he let them go. He then turned his attention back to the rest of the team to check their condition and make sure there were no injuries that had gone unmentioned in the midst of the other troubles.

"What's a DESBED?"

"Digi-tech. A medical tool developed since the end of the war."

Jou answered flatly, checking Miyako's condition quickly before moving onto Iori and then Hikari. It wasn't that he was trying to keep anything secret, he just didn't have much more to say than that. He only understood the basics of how the device worked. Koushiro was the one who could tell the science behind it.

Aside from Daisuke, Hikari was the only one with anything close to an injury, and the worst she had gotten was some small scrapes and cuts from pushing through thick foliage and getting nicked on the branches. Nothing she'd need to get treated for. Satisfied, Jou released the gen-two group to rejoin the rest of the children for their debriefing. Koushiro was already busy working with Andromon and Ken to transfer all the sensor data over to the Hunter network so they could start their analysis.

"So... how did we do?"

Hikari did her best to ignore the small knot forming in her stomach. It was a question that had to be asked... there was no denying the severity of Daisuke's injuries, but there was more to the mission than just him, and there was nothing the rest of them could do for him now. The Hunter medical staff would take care of him. The rest of the team needed to focus on the state of the war and what came next.

None of the first-gen children said a word... for a few seconds it was dead silence until Ken finally stood up, taking a brief break from helping Koushiro to debrief the field team.

"Based solely on our initial objectives before deployment..."

In other words, ignoring the blatant problem that everyone is thinking about right now...

"...the mission was an overwhelming success."

...they got the data they wanted and then some. They'd have more than enough to analyze for the next few days and weeks, and once they got a good look at it they'd be in a much better position to plan their next move.

"Any idea how long until we're ready to deploy again?"

There was a notable tension that filled the room when Hikari asked that question. After what had just happened to Daisuke the last thing on people's minds was going back out to fight, but they didn't have a choice. They'd have to go out sooner or later. Hikari just wanted an estimate on when so that they could plan ahead for it...

"Impossible to say. First we need to develop an efficient means of filtering out the junk data. That could take anywhere from hours to weeks. We have no way of knowing until we get to work. Though once that's done we shouldn't need more than a few days to-"

Taichi's fist slammed down on his console desk, silencing everyone in the room as he stood suddenly. Most of the children turned to him, expecting some reply to Ken's estimate... instead he turned away and walked out of the room without a word.

"Tai- dammit...!"

Yamato stood up from his console and went after him, immediately followed by Sora. Another awkward silence followed, again broken only by Ken's stalwart determination to keep moving forward in spite of... well, _everything_.

"...we'll let everyone know as soon as we have an estimate. Until then, you should all just take this chance to rest and recover as much as you can."

Hikari nodded soberly. It was obvious he wasn't talking about any of the children present... physically speaking, Daisuke was the only one in need of major rest and, knowing that idiot, he'd want to join them in the field the next time they went out, even if he wasn't fully ready to. Following that same line of thought, Jou stood and headed for the door as well...

"I'm going to the infirmary to check with the medical staff. I'll be back as soon as we know the extent of Daisuke's injuries."

Another silence followed, though this time Ken allowed it to linger, letting the tension slowly drain from the room. Eventually, most of the attention was turned to Koushiro and Andromon who had started labeling the data blocks by which sensor they had been taken from and their positions relative to each other.

Sensing the atmosphere changing, Ken turned to Miyako, finally pulling the comm piece out of his ear and setting it on the nearby desk. His hawk-like expression had returned somewhat, though it lacked the same degree of harshness that it had held during the mission.

"We've got t a ton of data to work through and we could use all the help we can get. Willing to lend a hand?"

The way Miyako's face lit up told everyone what she'd undoubtedly be doing for at least the next few days... though what Hikari noted most was the fact that she went right to Ken's side first rather than to her console. She only went to actually sit down once Ken started directing her on what they needed done first.

Glancing to Mimi, Hikari offered a raised brow. By the look on the older girl's face it was clear that she noticed it as well, but she simply grinned. A few seconds later she stood and headed for the door. Hikari and Iori followed not long after, figuring it was best leave the geeks to their toys. Everyone else was depending on them, after all... they didn't need any extra distractions.

* * *

Taichi stood atop the Hunter base, fingers curling around the top of the railing and head bowed over the edge. He felt like he was going to be sick... every muscle in his chest was constricting to the point where he could barely breathe. His eyes burned with tears, but they weren't tears of sadness... they were tears of pain. Anger, frustration, and a sickening anxiety that altogether made it hard to even stand up straight.

"Taichi!"

Yamato... _great_. Just the voice he needed to hear right now.

Taichi didn't bother turning around to look back. He sure as hell didn't want to talk, and even if he did it was doubtful he could think straight enough to be able to do so.

"Taichi, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Taichi took a sharp breath and shifted his weight back on one foot. Slapping his hand on the railing hard enough to make an audible ring, he spun back around, spotting Sora coming up there stairs a few seconds behind Yamato. On any other day that might have stopped him from ripping into his best friend, but there were special levels of stupid that just plain broke his civility limit.

"What the hell is wrong with _YOU_?! Daisuke nearly had his arm torn off and you don't even _care_?!"

Well _that_ was impressive. From silence to rage in two seconds. That must have been a new record...

"Not that! I'm talking about _you_! You haven't been yourself since the fighting started and you're getting worse every day! Locking down the network, walking away from command... and now _this_!"

Taichi had never been emotional before... not like _this_, anyway. His anger, his pain... he always used it to fuel his determination. It never wore him down the way it was doing now.

"It feels like you're running away from the world..."

Sora stepped up beside Yamato, finding courage enough to put aside her own feelings and worries and face her two... her... to face the two team leaders, putting her own feelings aside.

"You've always been our motivation, Taichi... you're our leader. Without you it feels like we're lost and _everyone_ is feeling it. The new team is lucky they didn't spend three years depending on you and they've learned how to make it alone... but just because they don't know how much they need you doesn't mean they _don't_."

"_WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!_"

Taichi's vision blurred with tears. He dropped his head, fingers clawing through the thick mess of hair in frustration. That was just a distraction, though. Anger and rage couldn't hide the pain, the fear... and most importantly the shame.

"I can't fight! I can't _lead_! I'm _useless_ to the whole team! I'm stuck sitting here, watching while everyone else gets beaten down and torn apart by an enemy that I can't even stand up to!"

Taichi's face rose to meet the gaze of both Yamato and Sora, pouring out his anger and rage equally at both of them. Who the hell were either of them to be coming at him with all of this anyway? They were in the same boat as him... they hadn't done much of anything to help the new children, yet they expected _him_ to carry the whole war?

"What about _YOU_?! How are you okay with this? You've been here right here with me the whole time, and you've done even less than _me_! At least I've tried to keep them safe – you haven't even done _that_! How can you watch them put their lives on the line and not even _care_?!"

"You think we don't _CARE_?!"

Sora lurched forward to grab Taichi by the collar, shoving him back to pin him against the railing. Fortunate that she was holding so firmly, else he might have tumbled right over the edge.

"HOW _DARE_ YOU! We've ALWAYS cared! Every time you took some stupid risk! Every time you threw yourself and Greymon into a hopeless fight! Every time you made yourself a shield to protect the rest of us! Every hit you ever took, every time we had to watch you... someone we all _love_, laugh at death like an idiot and wonder if that was going to be the time _you weren't going to come back_!"

Sora dropped forward, crumpling up against Taichi as her head pressed against his collar, hair falling in a mess over his chest. Her whole body shook with sobs... it was only Taichi that was holding her up now, though the credit could more to go the railing as he could barely stand upright any better than she could.

"Every... _damn_... time...! And you think we don't care...?!"

Sora stepped back, slapping Taichi hard across the face. Her eyes burned with indignation such that she could barely look at him now. The boy she had once looked up to so highly... the boy she had _loved_. But now... she just didn't know anymore.

"We can _handle_ this... because we had to watch YOU do the same God damn thing _every single day for THREE YEARS_!"

Sora was ready to storm off, to march right back to the stairs and just leave and let Yamato deal with the rest of Taichi's hypocritical bullshit... but then she actually caught a glimpse of him while turning and it stopped her. He wasn't upset. He wasn't even especially attentive. He was just standing there, hands in his pockets, staring at Taichi. No expression at all... not even neutral. He was just... blank.

"Honestly? I _don't_ care."

Words so simple, a tone so plain... but that struck a blow to both Taichi and Sora that was worse than anything either of them had said to the other. Both of them were burning up inside from anger and shame, pain and indignation, and Yamato... he... didn't even _care_?

"You're wrong, Taichi. About everything. You _can_ still fight. Not in the lead, no... we're not the strongest anymore, so you'd have to support the others, but you and Agumon can still fight just fine. We _all_ still can. The Kaiser made us weaker, but he, she... they didn't make us useless. They didn't make _you_ useless; you did that to _yourself_."

Taichi was shaken. Shaken by Sora's earlier words and now by Yamato... worse now because he didn't understand what his friend was feeling. Yamato had a way of being cold, but that utterly blank demeanor was well beyond even what _he_ was used to seeing, both during the war and in the year of recovery that had followed.

"Koushiro is still the brain, Mimi is still the heart... Jou is keeping us alive, and nobody's done more to help train the new digidestined than Sora. _Everybody_ is doing more than you."

"Except _you_."

Yamato shrugged. If Taichi was expecting to catch him off guard with that then he was vastly underestimating Yamato's unbreakable shield of apathy.

"I'm doing the best thing I _can_ do. I'm staying out of the way. I'm letting Hikari build up her new team and lead them the way none of us can. What's the point in training them to be like the rest of us? We failed."

"_What_?"

What the hell? As if Sora wasn't already indignant enough! It was bad enough hearing all this bullshit from Taichi, but what the hell was _this_?

"How did we _fail_? We won the war! We stopped Myotismon! Doesn't that mean _anything_ to you?"

Yamato didn't turn to meet Sora's gaze. At least _that_ much still got to him... he still cared about her enough that it hurt to see her angry at him... but that didn't change what he knew in his heart.

"Beating Myotismon was just us cleaning up our mess. A mess that started because we failed in the first place. We lost a digidestined... and I lost my _brother_."

With an expression that was somehow even deader than it had been a moment before, Yamato turned around and headed back toward the exit, stopped only momentarily by Sora calling after him.

"Yamato-"

"What are you going to say, Sora?"

Yamato stopped in his tracks, raising his voice so that they would hear him, but he didn't turn back to look at either of them.

"It'll get better? He'll come back? He'll forgive us? Do _you_ even believe that? How do you expect _me_ to?"

Silence. They had gone through too much for empty reassurances to be worth anything. Yamato wasn't a pessimist, but he understood the real world... Takeru had held his grudge against them for three solid years of war and disappeared immediately after it ended. Holding onto hope was good, but there was a certain point after which it was simply naivete.

Sora sighed to herself as she watched him leave. Well _this_ was a fine damn mess. From two best friends at war with each other to two friends at war with themselves... and here _she_ was, constantly caught in the middle of it all.

What the hell was happening to them? How could they have fallen so far, to go from being heroes to... _this_... whatever this was. Moreover, how could they be expected to save the world if they couldn't even save themselves?

"...we ran away."

Taichi muttered, forcing himself to push off the railing and stand up. He was still down and his posture showed it... weary, burned out... worn from the fighting in his own head as much as the new generation was from their latest mission... but he was standing. Still here... the Kaiser hadn't beaten him yet.

"We saw fight we couldn't win and we ran away. We let Takeru down... because we thought we didn't have the strength to fight."

Yamato was right about that much, at least... Taichi _could_ still fight. He was no longer at the level he used to be – certainly not as strong as the new children – but neither was Hikari and she was the one _leading_ the field team.

"...what are you going to do?"

Taichi glanced up, noticing Sora's eyes on him again. She noticed the shift in his demeanor... the spark in his eyes that was slowly growing back into a familiar fire. She was scared... of course she was. As she said, she had to deal with his insanity every day for three years of war. Why wouldn't she be scared to learn he was going to return to that?

"...I'm sorry "

Sora sighed, turning to avert her gaze. She was still angry... she had been indignant at him for his selfishly assuming they didn't care. Now he apparently understood, but if he was simply going back to the way he used to be then it didn't make it any better... in fact, in some ways it was worse.

"Idiot..."

She intended to walk away before Taichi stopped her, stepping forward to grab her by the arm and pull her back. She wouldn't meet his gaze though... she deliberately kept her head turned away, staring down at the concrete floor while desperately trying to keep the tears from forming in her eyes

"Sora, I can't do this. Commanding from the back... this isn't me. It _never_ was. I have to lead from the front... I have to _fight_."

"That's why you're an idiot... you're going to do exactly what you were trying to stop all of _them_ from doing."

Taichi released her arm, straightening up his posture slightly. He wasn't going to argue with her... he knew she was right. It wasn't really fair on anyone else to go off to war like that and leave them behind to worry... to go through everything that had nearly torn him apart in the last couple weeks. Still... he was who he was.

"Better me than them. That's why I fight... I do it so nobody else has to. I just want to keep everyone safe. So yeah, I'm an idiot... but it's easier to live with that then seeing my friends get hurt."

Sora didn't stop Taichi from walking away, and when he was gone she slumped down against the railing and broke down, damn near crying her eyes out.

There was no way for her to win... either way Taichi went, he was going to get hurt. Either from the mortal danger of the Kaiser's armies or from being eaten alive by his own internal strife. And Yamato... she didn't even know _what_ to think about him. His fight was with an enemy that they couldn't beat... their past. Certainly Takeru's absence made it worse, but even if they found him again would it make things better?

The realization was slowly sinking in that Yamato may have been entirely beyond their help now... and though it was a painful thing to accept, it brought with it a sudden clarity to her mind. Perhaps there was nothing she could do for Yamato, but that wasn't true for Taichi. There were two boys she loved and wanted to help, and if one of them was entirely beyond her aid then what else was she to do? She only had one person left to take care of. Was she going to just let him charge into a potentially fatal war all alone?

To hell with that. She had been called a tomboy before and it was a title she had earned. She knew how to fight as well as anyone, and if Taichi was crazy enough to go into a war zone with a partner that couldn't evolve then _she_ could be too.

Standing up, Sora stumbled a moment, catching herself on the railing before quickly wiping away the tears and straightening her hair. She wanted to make sure she didn't look like a _complete_ mess when she went back into the base. She needed to look presentable when she went to talk to Masaharu and give him the news.

The old team was back. Crazy, stupid, and impulsive as ever, but they were still back. Though her priority would still be training the new children, she was also going to be joining them in the field as long as Taichi was there with them as well. She'd watched that idiot stand along against untold dangers for three years, and she wasn't going to spend another day doing so without making sure he had someone there to watch his back...


	9. The Source

Remember to check the top of my profile page for a link to the Digital Hazard forum, made by Swords and Roses. Updates and background story info will be regularly posted there.

A/N: Only, this chapter is _slightly_ late, but still in this week, so I count it as being on time. Those last few weeks of messed up schedules threw me off my game a bit, but I'm getting back on it. Promise I'm not wasting all my time on the videogames again...

On a side note, where have all the reviewers gone? o.o I realize that with my posting schedule kicking up to high gear like it has it might make reviewing every chapter a little tedious, but for the last three chapters there hasn't been anyone except the mysterious 'guest' reviewing. I admit this has made me a little bit concerned. Almost wonder if some people have lost interest in the story...

Please understand though, I'm not asking for reviews here, (Heck, just send a PM instead) but if someone could explain to me the reason for the sudden drop off then I'd appreciate it. It's kinda weird getting so much of a response from my first book and then all this silence from book 2.

Chapter 9: The Source

**Learning where we came from is the first step to truly understanding where we are going.**

Life was confusing.

No matter which way Miyako cut it, things never made any sense. This whole business with the Kaiser was a prime example. First, they couldn't even figure out what the enemy was after even though it should have been fairly straightforward.

Mass destruction? Simple. Enslaving the entire digital world? Cliche, but still not bad... taking over a pocket of the digital world, enslaving hundreds of digimon, then stopping it all once the digidestined show up even though you have the power to crush them by turning your whole army on them at once?

Damn it. You had to make this complicated, didn't you?

On top of that, there was the whole Hunter political thing which she didn't even want to think about. The civilian and military branches arguing was bad enough on its own, but now, right after Daisuke got injured, Taichi decided to step down from his position as the official team leader and Yamato had disappeared altogether. Three days so far without either of their leaders around, and just when they were about to move on to really fighting back against the Kaiser? This was some serious crap they did _not_ need.

Oh well. At least Koushiro was staying on track. Plus he had Ken at his side to help, who was just as smart and arguably a _lot_ cuter... not that Miyako really cared about that. She was strictly interested in the research. Totally professional... really.

_Anyway_... she hadn't been able to do much to help with the junk data problem. Even Koushiro and Ken couldn't do that on their own. They needed to develop some programs to auto-filter everything first. She could help refine the algorithms once they were developed, but until then she was stuck waiting. Had to find something else to do...

Fortunately, Miyako had gotten approved for standard military clearance for the Hunter Network, research branch. This meant she could log into the system and work on her projects at home instead of having to stay at the base all the time.

That was how she ended up in her room late at night, sitting at her computer in a pair of pink flannel pajamas and snacking on pocky while browsing old Hunter records. _God_ this was awesome...

Miyako leaned back, reaching her arms out wide to stretch before settling her chair back down, quickly pulling her hair up into a ponytail and returning to her browsing. Ken had his pet projects, she had hers... the latter mostly revolved around hunting through old records for anything that might be applicable to what they were working on now. She'd barely found anything so far, but she figured sooner or later there had to be _something_ from the old war files that they'd be able to make use of. With all these freaky old projects that Takeru kid had run, there was no way they'd been able to make full use of everything he created.

"How's it coming?"

Momoe asked as she stepped into the room, wearing a pair of blue pajamas that were otherwise identical to her sisters'. She understood more or less what Miyako was working on, even if the specifics eluded her. She was the only one her sister had been mostly up front with regarding the danger, and the only one who knew how badly their last mission had gone for Daisuke. Then again, most of the others hadn't asked for much info in the first place. More than likely they didn't _want_ to know more, and could Momoe really blame them? They weren't stupid... they knew that if Miyako was in danger there was nothing they could do to help, so why even give themselves a reason to worry?

"Slow. It's hard to believe, but Takeru might have been even smarter than Koushiro or Ken... I can at least make _sense_ of their work, but most of this stuff is completely over my head."

Momoe nodded and covertly swiped a couple of the pocky sticks, one for herself and the other to feed to Hawkmon who was sitting at the edge of the desk. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep, yet when the treat was offered he opened his mouth to take it regardless. Always attentive, that one...

"Why not help the other guys then? Might be more useful right now."

"Meh..."

Miyako leaned forward, propping her elbows up on the desk and resting her head on her hands as her lips fell into a lazy frown.

"It's all busy work. Number crunching and data processing. They've got Andromon to handle all that crap, and it's not like there's much I could learn from it anyway."

She sighed, closing one window and switching to another, still in search of that elusive breakthrough that might be buried somewhere in Takeru's old files.

"Besides, there's no rush... it's not like we can do anything for a while. We won't be launching any more missions until Daisuke gets better. We can't really attack with one of our three big fighters missing."

"The other digidestined still can't digivolve?"

"Nope."

And that wasn't likely to change any time soon either. Not until they could figure out how that damn interference worked, and who knew when _that_ would happen? Koushiro had spent the last two weeks working on that day and night and he didn't appear to be any closer than when they started.

Momoe knelt down beside Miyako and propped her head up in much the same manner as her sister had. For a minute she just watched, eyes skimming the same window that Miyako was studying, though she wasn't really paying attention. Not like she could make any sense of it either. Instead, she was thinking... pondering the crappy mess the kids were stuck in and wondering whose bright idea it was to send three children up against an entire army.

"Is there any way you can get extra help? Like, from other digidestined or something?"

"There _aren't_ any others. We're the only people who got digivices."

"How do you know?"

"The network detected them come through. It only picked up our three."

Momoe let out an annoyed grunt and dropped her chin down to the desk. Unlike the digidestined children who took the 'hero' approach to problem solving, Momoe was far more practical. She figured the best way to win a war was to start by making sure their side wasn't completely outnumbered and outgunned, but apparently the idiots who chose Miyako and the others didn't agree.

"Whose stupid idea was it to make only three new digidestined, anyway? Where'd those digivices even _come_ from?"

Miyako opened her mouth to answer, but soon closed it again. Momoe noticed the peculiar silence, as did Hawkmon who soon opened his eyes and turned to look over to his partner, confused.

That... was a good question. Miyako knew they had come from the digital world, but that was it. Before, when she first got her digivice, she hadn't really thought to ask more than that because she had known nothing about the digital world. Since then she had been too preoccupied with the business of her training and the war to go back and give it a second glance. Though now that Momoe was asking... it made her wonder.

Miyako didn't give a verbal answer, but with the way her fingers suddenly went to work on the keyboard it was pretty clear that her sister had hit on something important. All the old research records were quickly dropped from the screen and replaced with records from two weeks prior. It took Miyako a while to finally track down the exact date and time, but once she did it was easy to spot the signals in question.

They weren't large... certainly not large enough to set off any system alerts, but they were distinct. The path they took through the network to the school and then to the children was clear, and the path back to the digital world was equally clear, though less immediately coherent. Tracking the exit point in the human world was as simple as identifying the IP address of the system where the devices emerged from, but finding the source involved locking onto the spatial coordinates within the digital world itself.

Miyako was no expert on digital world physics. Translating the various numerical values from the records into usable information without any context to work from was a challenge she immediately realized she would need help with. However, she was able to determine one notable fact about the digivices right away... all the origin coordinates were identical.

"...they all came from the same place."

Perhaps that seemed like an obvious conclusion to draw, but until now she had assumed they had each been sent from the separate digimentals. Now it was clear they weren't. What's more, she now had data on the exact location where they actually _did_ originate from. Enough to, perhaps... be able to trace it back to wherever the source was so that they could check it out themselves.

"Where?"

"_Here_."

Miyako pointed to the spatial coordinates buried in a large block of text before suddenly standing and rushing over to her bed to grab her phone from the charger. By the time Momoe had a chance to react her sister was already dialing someone up.

"Wait... where's _that_?"

"I don't know, but I'm about to find out..."

Miyako muttered and pulled the phone up to her ear, pacing back toward the computer as she waited through several rings for an answer that was apparently not coming...

"Darn it, Koushiro... pick up. This is important."

Another ring and the phone switched over to voice mail. Sighing, she canceled the call and went back to her contacts. She really needed the team's tech leader for this, but she also didn't want to wait until whenever he was able to get back to her, so she dialed up a different expert. Fortunately, _he_ answered almost immediately.

"_Hello?"_

"Ken, this is Miyako."

She sat back down and started on the keyboard again, preparing for the inevitable data-link Ken would want to set up.

"_Miyako? What's wrong? Why are you calling so late?"_

"I found something important and I need your help. I think it's spatial coordinates for somewhere in the digital world, but I don't know what they mean."

"_Spa- what? Coordinates for what? Where did you find them?"_

"In the network. I think it's where the digivices came from. Can you link up with me?"

"_The... yes. I'll be right there. You set up yet?"_

"All ready to go. Just give the word."

"_Alright, do it."_

Well _that_ was fast. A task that took Miyako a minute to prepare took only a few seconds for Ken. He was even better at working the network than she thought. A quick push of a button and Miyako was connected to Ken's computer, sharing screens and data. He muttered a few incoherencies on the other end of the phone as he quickly worked out what he was looking at. Once he had it, he apparently he reached the same conclusion that she did.

"_The digivices weren't sent from their digimentals... they all came from the same location."_

"Do you know where that is?"

"_No, but I **will**. Give me about an hour and I'll have the sector pegged down."_

Miyako did a quick switch to a side window, checking her connection with Ken. Not the Hunter base... he was working from home just like she was, so he wouldn't be there when she arrived.

"Alright. I'm disconnecting. I'll reconnect from the Hunter base when I get there."

Before Ken could reply, the link was cut and Miyako was running over to her dresser to grab a set of clothes to change into. So much for a quiet night...

"_The base? Miyako, it's the middle of the night."_

"You think Hikari's gonna care?"

Ken's silence was all the reply she needed. He knew how that girl was better than most. They found something useful, so she was gonna jump on it, sleep be damned. They could sleep in the next day... this wasn't going to wait.

"Alright. I'll call the Hunters and get a military pick up for everyone. You let Hikari and Iori know what's going on."

A few seconds later, the phone and computer were both shut off and Miyako was heading for the door, tossing her phone to Momoe along the way.

"Here. Contacts, Hikari Yagami. Call her and tell her I figured out where the digivices were sent from, they all came from the same place, and Ken's calling a pick up from the Hunters to take us all to the base. Gotta change."

Momoe stuttered for a moment as her sister disappeared around the corner. Well, that was... unexpected. Probably shouldn't have been given Miyako's personality, but still... this was a first. Momoe was now playing messenger for the digidestined.

As she prepared to dial, it occurred to her that she had never actually met any of these new children before. This would be her first time ever speaking to the now famous Hikari Yagami. It almost made her nervous except that she was pretty sure she couldn't embarrass herself even if she wanted to. If any of the stories about Hikari were true, she'd be too focused on the news to even notice.

"_Miyako?"_

"No... actually, this is her sister, Momoe."

"_Momoe? _What?_ Why are you calling me? What's going on?"_

"Miyako's getting dressed and told me to call for her. She said to tell you that she figured out where the digivices came from and they that all came from the same place. She called someone named Ken earlier, and he's apparently getting the Hunters to send someone to pick you all up."

The total silence that followed made Momoe wonder if the call had been dropped, but just as she was going to check the signal Hikari replied.

"_...is that everything?"_

"So far."

"_Alright. Thank you. Tell Miyako I'll see her at the base."_

Then the call was dropped for real. Momoe sighed and shook her head lightly. Just as she'd been told... that girl was just a little scary for her apparent one-track mind, but at least she knew that Miyako was being led by someone who took the war seriously.

Momoe was about to call the other child, Iori, when something occurred to her. A mission being launched without warning, at this time of night? They weren't going to have much help... sure, they had the main team, but all the original digidestined would probably be absent...

When Miyako got back to the room she found her sister gone and her phone sitting on the desk. What the...

"Momoe left suddenly. She called Hikari, but I don't believe she was able to call Iori."

Hawkmon was still sitting perched on the edge of the desk, waiting for Miyako to be ready to depart before he did anything. No real point in getting up and flapping about without anything to do, after all.

Admittedly, Miyako was confused. That was very out of character for her sister to do, but maybe she had a good reason? Regardless, she grabbed the phone and called Iori next, making sure he was filled in on the situation before she finished getting dressed. Though just as she was finishing up tying her shoes, Momoe reentered the room, wearing one of her usual blue turtlenecks and a pair of jeans, apparently intending to travel as well.

"I'm going with you."

"Wh- huh?"

Oooooooooo... kay? This was certainly not something she had seen coming...

"I'm... going to a military base."

"No, you're going to the _digital world_. You, Hikari, and Iori all are. Is there going to be anyone still left at the base for you to keep in contact with?"

"Well... Hikari's going, so Taichi might be there."

"Didn't you say Taichi resigned as team leader?"

"Oh... _well_..."

Miyako had briefly forgotten that she was actually keeping Momoe up to date on all that stuff. Apparently she'd said more than she thought and her sister had been paying attention, so she knew everything that was going on with the team.

"Yamato hasn't been around, you couldn't get in contact with Koushiro... and isn't he dating Mimi?"

"Well, that's just a _rumor_."

Okay, so apparently she had been telling Momoe a _lot_ more than she thought. She even knew the rumors bouncing around the team... though to be fair, it was pretty well agreed upon by everyone that they were definitely together. The only reason they were weren't public about it was because they were trying to avoid it being a big publicity thing. The first gen kids were minor celebrities, after all.

"_And_... Jou's taking medical school classes, so he's probably already asleep by now... that leaves maybe Sora, and that's assuming she even _hears_ about this."

As usual, Momoe's logic was impeccable. That wasn't much of a surprise seeing as how the girl was deciding to go to the Hunter base. She wasn't prone to erratic or impulsive behavior like Miyako was, so if she did something wildly unexpected then she undoubtedly had very good reason.

Still, Miyako briefly pondered the prospect of having to explain this to the Hunters or her fellow digidestined. She wasn't sure how well this was going to go over with any of them. However, the alternative meant trying to talk her sister out of it, which pretty well _never_ worked.

Ultimately she just shrugged and decided to go along with it. Whatever. Wasn't her problem anyway. If things didn't work out then Momoe just wouldn't come back in the future. Either way, Miyako had bigger things to worry about. Namely, figuring out just where the hell they were going in the digital world...

* * *

"Looks like a wild zone."

Ken voiced through the computer as he highlighted a spot on the map, zooming in on a rough topographical map of the sector in question.

"Minimal settlements. Forests, hills, cliffs... typical terrain for a lot of areas in the digital world. Nothing notable from what I can see."

"It's fairly deep in the Kaiser's territory though..."

Hikari muttered and zoomed the map back out, taking a look at the general boundaries of the enemy's territory.

"What are you thinking?"

Momoe inquired offhandedly. She was somewhat surprised to find that nobody had reacted much to her presence there when they found she was coming along with Miyako. Maybe they all figured she was authorized by someone else? The chain of command _was_ a little blurry near the top...

"I had thought it might be Gennai that called us at the start, but that's too deep in. There's no way Gennai would stay there, surrounded by the Kaiser's forces. I don't know who else it could be, though..."

"No way you _can_ know until you get in there and see for yourself."

Momoe muttered and plopped herself down in a seat next to her sister. She already knew what was coming next... all the healthy gen-two children were present, along with their partners. They came here ready to deploy to the digital world, and that's exactly what they were going to do.

Some of the gen-ones were there as well. Surprisingly, Jou was still at the base despite it being so late. He'd been keeping up on Daisuke's health over the last few days, as well as learning from the Hunter medical staff about some digi-tech thing that the other kids didn't understand. Mimi had also made it... apparently she wasn't what was distracting Koushiro like the two sisters had figured. Those were the only ones though. Wherever Taichi and Yamato had disappeared to, they weren't returning to show their faces for this, nor was Sora... though just how many of those children had even _heard_ about this yet was another question entirely.

"So we deploy. Have a plan?"

With the other team leaders absent, Jou had taken up the role for the night. Of course, Hikari was the one _actually_ calling the shots, but she needed someone to handle coordination between the children in both worlds, and Jou was naturally good at stuff like that.

Hikari didn't initially reply. As usual she stood and simply thought for a moment. This mission was a tad different than the others for the fact that they were short one digidestined, plus it was the first time deploying at the dead of night. Lots of opportunities for the enemy to ambush them...

"Miyako and I will go first and scout from the air. Iori, you stay here and keep in touch. If we find any trouble, you follow with backup to distract the enemy and give us a chance to get out there. We're running this as a standard scouting mission. Avoid all combat and get out if it gets too risky."

Fortunately, Iori wasn't the type to complain about being left behind. He knew his own weaknesses well enough... he was the slowest member of the team, at least in terms of his partner's abilities. Unless they were trying to tunnel behind enemy lines, he wasn't suitable as a scout. Besides, how else were they going to get backup if they needed it? Without one of the gen two children they couldn't even get _to_ the digital world. The alternative would be for the rest of the digimon to come with them from the start and just wait by the terminal while the others scouted, and that was as certain a way as any to get attacked.

"Taking any sensors with you?"

"We'll carry one just in case, but we won't activate it unless we find something peculiar."

Jou nodded, signaling to one of the Hunter techs who was present to retrieve one of the sensor units for the children. Understandably, they kept them and the other high-end gear under lock and key. Not so much out of distrust for the children as a concern that they could get damaged. They still cost quite a bit to produce, so they wanted to make sure nothing went to waste.

"Alright, everyone wire up and get ready to deploy."

Momoe watched as the whole team quickly geared up for the mission with their comm units and other equipment. She was actually kind of impressed... she hadn't thought her sister would be one who would fit into a military environment, but she clearly carried a certain level of professionalism that she had never held before becoming digidestined.

"Hey, I said wire up."

Momoe snapped out of her brief stupor to glance over toward Jou, noticing that he was looking at her right then. Iori and Mimi were as well, though they would also watching Jou with mixed confusion.

"I... I'm not a member of the team."

"You're here. You're Miyako's sister. We're down a few members and we'll need an extra hand to keep an eye on things. I don't care if you're digidestined. I just need to know you're reliable."

"She is!"

Miyako shouted from across the room, at the platform. Momoe stuttered and fell silent. She was about to say she didn't know enough about all this digital world stuff to be reliable, but her sister had preempted that. Now there was apparently no way out. Well... her own fault for wanting to come in the first place, right? She figured she'd only be there for an emergency, in case there were no gen-one children present, but Jou was putting her to work regardless.

Nodding, she stood up and went over to where Jou was standing by Koushiro's main terminal in order to get help putting on the comm gear.

"Everyone ready?"

Hikari asked, glancing across the team members ending with Momoe, knowing she would take the longest to prepare as she was their newest recruit. As soon as she had confirmation she opened the gate and deployed, without so much as an instant of delay.

The suddenness of it actually caught Momoe off guard. No protocol, no ceremony, just activate the computer and dive in. It seemed a stark contrast to how they had operated so far. Contacting everyone, getting the team together, checking their intel... they took their time in most things, making sure everything was ready, but once they started into the digital world everything became lightning-fast.

It made sense, considering that in the digital world they were facing mortal danger and even a moment's delay could lead to injury or death. Still... it was Momoe's first time seeing it. Miyako hadn't said anything about it either, but then she seemed to react the same as Hikari. It was like the children all had a mode-shift when they stepped into danger and that they didn't even seem to notice when it happened.

It was right then that she suddenly realized why so few digidestined were chosen despite being in the midst of a war. It was deliberate... they weren't meant to be an army like Momoe thought they should have. The _Hunters_ were an army... the Hunters were _soldiers_. The children... the digidestined were heroes, and heroes had to operate at a completely different level than the average man or woman, even those with military training. If there were a thousand of them then they could afford to be a little more relaxed, but with so few they had to be elite. Superhuman.

Suddenly she had a whole new perspective of the digidestined. Their extreme natures were not by chance, and perhaps not even by nature. Koushiro wasn't born a genius, he was made into one by necessity and by three years of war. The same was also true for everyone else. Fearless Taichi, reliable Jou... right down through the whole list, every single one of them was an extreme example of something, and... given long enough, Miyako and the other new children would undoubtedly be just the same.

* * *

As the group emerged in the digital world Hawkmon immediately evolved and took to the air with the girls and Gatomon. As usual, no enemies were waiting anywhere around the terminal, but they weren't taking any chances. Just because the Kaiser had been following a certain pattern up until now didn't mean that pattern was going to hold forever, and assuming it would was a surefire way of falling into a trap. Sooner or later they'd encounter an exception to the general rule, and this seemed like one of the most likely places to do so... assuming the Kaiser even _realized_ that the digivices came from this area.

Unfortunately, with it being night it was hard to get a good view of their surroundings. Halsemon could make things out well enough, but humans weren't born with night-vision. Even under the light of the half-moon they couldn't make out anything specific. Not from so high up, at least, so they had to depend on the digimon's sight to locate anything of importance.

Still, at least one thing became clear right away: There were no obvious landmarks to draw their attention. Like Ken had told them before, this one was mostly blank wilderness, devoid of large structures save those in the villages or the like. If Gennai _did_ have a safe house here, it was well concealed. If not, there were no obvious places where the digivices could have come from...

"_Find anything?"_

After about ten minutes of searching Jou's voice came through the comm. They hadn't reported anything yet, so he figured it was time to check in and learn the general state of things.

"Nothing here to find. It's all wilderness."

Miyako was a bit more dismissive than Hikari, who was keeping silent, busily scanning the ground as best she could for a sign of anything peculiar.

"_Are there any towns or villages nearby?"_

"Probably, if the spire is any indication..."

One good thing about the silver spires was that they were easy to spot, even at night. The outer surface was basically a giant mirror, so it reflected all of the moonlight that hit it. Of course, it did the same for the sunlight in the day, which was why the things were damn near blinding most of the time...

"_Could it have come from the town?"_

It was pretty clear that everyone else was dismissive of that idea right off the bat, but Momoe felt the need to ask anyway. They didn't have anything to go by except a general location, so they needed to explore all possibilities, even the unlikely ones.

"_Doubtful, since the Kaiser controlled the zone well before the digivices were sent."_

Miyako and Hikari continued surveying the ground below, simply listening to Jou and Momoe converse about the possibilities of the mission.

"_Could the source have been mobile?"_

"_It's possible... but that would mean it probably came directly from a person, so why would they have been in the Kaiser's territory when they sent the digivices?"_

"_The real question is, why **there**? There's lots of zones in and out of the Kaiser's territory. What's special about that one?"_

"_As far as we can tell, nothing. No major landmarks, nothing important to the Kaiser... it's pretty well generic."_

"_What was special about the other sectors?"_

"_**What** other sectors?"_

"_The ones where they found their digimentals."_

Hikari's gaze shifted up momentarily. The digimentals... Miyako's had been inside a major landmark, but the others... they'd been hidden. In valleys, in caves, near- wait, near a forest.

A forest... like the one directly beneath them.

"Halsemon, go down! Follow that cliff!"

Jou was in the middle of replying to Momoe when Hikari's words stopped him. A cliff? What was she doing?

"_Hikari, did you find something?"_

"No, but two of the digimentals were hidden in caves."

"_What makes you think we're looking for a digimental?"_

"I don't know, but they're connected to the digivices and they were all hidden in places like that. It's better than just flying around and searching at random."

Well, that last part was certainly true. Jou wouldn't have advised flying around the bottom of cliffs looking for caves if they had a better alternative, but... did they, really? All they had was a general location, with no context of what they were looking for. They had to figure out some way to narrow the search or they wouldn't get anywhere at all.

"_So the sector is **supposed** to be generic. That's why the digimentals were hidden there, because it was somewhere no one would think to look?"_

Momoe promptly picked up from where Jou had left off before, or almost had before Hikari cut him off. He was in the middle of saying that the digimentals themselves were the only thing that made those areas special. He hadn't suggested anything along the lines of what Momoe just said, but her couldn't fault the logic of it...

"_Aside from Miyako's. Hers was in a large steppe pyramid. We're still not sure why..."_

Miyako smirked slightly at that. It felt good to be the special one of the group, even if it _had_ caused her a bit of trouble before by making her easier for the... _bees_ to locate.

"_Isn't that just more of the same thing? One's in a pyramid, one's next to a forest, one's in a valley... it's still random, just in a different way."_

Okay, Hikari had to admit that this girl was pretty good... she clearly didn't react with the confusion or frustration that most of the other new children did at the start. Her brain was always working, and even if one of her ideas weren't correct she had plenty more to follow it up with. If nothing else, her ideas could get everyone else's mental gears turning, like her question about the digimentals had for Hikari.

"There!"

That line of thought was interrupted by Gatomon, pointing out something that wasn't immediately clear to the girls. Halsemon changed course, moving around to get closer until the humans of the group were able to spot it as well.

"_A cave?"_

Momoe inquired, though she was soon cut off by the acting mission leader.

"_Double check for any hostiles before you do any searching."_

Frankly, Jou didn't care if they had found a cave, a shiny penny or a dive bar. Priority one was safety. The field team could handle the actual searching without commentary from the people back at base.

"Nothing on my digivice. We should be okay... Hikari, I'm switching the sensor on, just in case."

"Got it. Gatomon, you lead. Halsemon, watch the exit."

Gatomon was probably the only one among them who could see a damn thing inside that cave; her night sight was even better than Halsemon's. Besides that, the armored bird was too big to fit comfortably inside the cave without devolving, and they weren't going to risk being caught unprepared if enemies appeared, either from within the cave or from their surroundings.

Gatomon stalked ahead slowly, muttering things back to the girls to help them avoid any obstacles along the way. The faint glow from Miyako's digivice and from the small lights on the sensor unit were barely enough to light the way ahead, but with Gatomon's help it was at least enough to avoid tripping on anything major.

"Wish we could make these things shine at will."

Miyako muttered and Hikari nodded, though she was making a conscience effort not to say anything right now. If there was something deeper in that was waiting for them, no doubt Miyako and Gatomon had already alerted it to their presence by their talking, but at least if she stayed quiet she might be able to hear _it_.

As Gatomon rounded the second corner she stopped abruptly and Hikari tensed up, expecting to have to turn around and flee. Instead, Gatomon jumped forward and ran ahead into the corridor before shouting back a few seconds later.

"There's light back here!"

The girls noticed it as they came around the corner as well. That was a good sign... at the very least, it meant there was _something_ back here. Seemed more likely this was the right place to search, plus it made it a lot easier to actually see where they were going.

Gatomon stopped again as they reached the final corner, but this time she didn't run ahead. Hikari realized why as soon as the girls caught up. Ahead of them, on a low platform, was... something none of them had expected.

Well, none of them except Momoe.

"Jou, we found... a digimental."

Small, silver, and roughly egg-shaped, like most of the others. It was also squarely in the middle of the source of the light in the cave which, while convenient, made it a bit difficult to make out the symbol on the front of it.

"_A **what**?"_

"_So a digimental **was** the source of the digivices?"_

Iori entered the conversation for the first time, stepping up to the console as Momoe pushed a few buttons to record the location of the girls and save it in the Hunter database. She remembered that Miyako had said something about Ken using the locations of the digimentals they already found to try to locate others. Best not to lose the chance to record it now just in case they couldn't come back later.

"_But there aren't any other digidestined to use them..."_

Jou muttered as Hikari stepped forward to get a better look at it. Good point... but first, she wanted to know just what they were actually dealing with here. Every other digimental had a crest on it, so which one was _this_? Maybe that would give them some hint as to... what the?

"Hikari..."

Gatomon noticed it the same time that she did. That was just about the _last_ digimental she expected to find at the source of the digivices.

"...it's the Digimental of Light."

Her _own_ digimental, in theory, but she didn't have one of the new digivices that the other children did, so it was unlikely she'd ever be able to use it.

"_Why would the Digimental of **Light** be the source?"_

Good question from Iori... it was ironic since the Crest of Light had been the last one they obtained, and apparently the digimental was the first. However, more important than that was what they ought to do with it now that they found it. They could figure out why it was the source later.

"Gatomon, go tell Halsemon about this."

The feline nodded and promptly darted back toward the entrance of the cave as Jou came back in over the comm.

"_What are you thinking, Hikari?"_

"I'm thinking... maybe the signals weren't for the digimentals, but the _digimon_. _Maybe_... the new digidestined can have multiple digimentals that they can use interchangeably... or who knows, maybe together?"

"Wait, does that mean we could use _each others'_ digimentals?"

"Good question... this is all just theory, anyway. Gotta test it to find out."

Hikari motioned toward the digimental and Miyako nodded, taking several steps forward to grab the digimental and pick it-

To... pick it... _up_...

Miyako pulled and pulled some more, trying in vain to just lift the damn thing. When that didn't work she tried to twist it and pull or push it to various side directions, thinking maybe it was stuck on something, but no... as far as she could tell it was just sitting there. Finally, she sucked in a deep breath, planting her foot on the edge of the stone platform for extra leverage as she tried with all her strength to pry the object up. Pry it, lift it, whichever worked...

Releasing it, she stumbled back, exhaling the breath she'd been holding that whole time. Okay... _yeah_. That thing was _not_ moving.

"_What's wrong?"_

Jou had only heard Miyako's heavy breathing through the mic, so he and those with him had no idea what was going on. Hikari saw everything clearly enough, but it was somewhat confusing. Why had this not happened with any of the other digimentals before? Was there something special about this one, or... maybe her theory was wrong. Maybe there _was_ a specific child that this one was meant for.

"I think we'll need a _crane_ to pick this thing up..."

"It's heavy?"

"Well, I couldn't even budge it, so either that or it's super-glued to the rocks or something..."

Hikari quickly zoned out the replies from Jou and Momoe as they were things she had already run through in her head. Likely meant for a specific digidestined... but they had no one else to come pick it up. Her theory hadn't necessarily been disproven though... not _yet_. Not until they brought Iori and Daisuke in to try to pick it up as well.

While they discussed that though, she fell back onto the question of why this place was apparently the origin of the digivices. If Miyako couldn't lift it when it was certain that nobody else would be able to, either. Nobody except the one it was meant for. So... a digimental nobody could lift, and it just happened to randomly send out several digivices to the new children?

Bullshit. Things don't just happen at random. Something had to trigger it. Either Gennai or the Kaiser or... something.

"_Hikari, take a look around the area."_

Hikari snapped to attention suddenly at the voice in the comm. Mimi... she'd forgotten that girl was even _part_ of this operation. She'd been so quiet up until now... still, good advice. More or less along the lines of what Hikari herself was thinking. Maybe there was a sign of something else around here that could explain what happened.

While the rest of the children, ignoring what Mimi just said, continued their discussion about what to do next, Hikari started to walk around and inspect the area. Someone was suggesting that Iori jump to the digital world and try to get the digimental, but Hikari knew that wasn't going to happen without someone to lead him to the cave anyway, so whatever. More importantly... was there anything about this place they were missing?

Hikari noticed the digi-code on the side of the platform almost immediately, but that was nothing special. The light had to be coming from somewhere, after all. Those carved symbols were likely the source... No digi-code anywhere else, though. All around her the cave seemed to be pretty well just that... a cave. Nothing on the walls, the floor, the pla-

The platform. Once she got a second look at it she realized something was wrong. The digimental was off-center to the right and, more importantly, there was a small depression about half a meter to the left of it. Hikari reached out to idly trace one finger around the inner edge of it. Smooth and rounded... ovular, to be specific.

Hikari hadn't even noticed the digimon partners had returned until Gatomon hopped up onto her shoulder. Halsemon had devolved in order to make it into the cave more easily and now Miyako was apologizing for calling them in for, apparently, nothing.

"What's that?"

Gatomon muttered, leaving the others to have their talk while Hikari focused on something that was potentially _far_ more important.

"That's... a _good_ question..."

Hikari muttered, glancing aside to the other digimental to size it up, both figuratively and literally. The shape wasn't exactly right... the base wasn't round enough to fit in the left depression. Of course, that made sense since all of the digimentals were of a slightly different shape and appearance. If it _was_ a digimental, that meant there was only one that would fit this exact spot. Unfortunately, they had no way of figuring out which it was without actually having the digimental in question in their hands.

Though that was assuming that's what it was at all. They had yet to find more than a single digimental in one place. For all she knew it had been something else entirely. However, the fact that the two objects were evenly spaced from the platform's center at least suggested that whatever this other spot had been made for was of roughly equal importance, if not equal nature...

Hikari reached over to grab the Digimental of Light, though she didn't expect to actually be able to lift it. She was more ponderous at that moment. Light... all the other digimentals were alone, but light was paired with something. There were only four options, and only one of them had any clear parallels with her own.

Takeru, the Digidestined of Hope... his partner was Angemon; hers, Angewomon. Each of them was also roughly the same age, as well as the age of the new generation of children, whereas they were several years younger than the rest of the original team...

...and as she took hold of the Digimental of Light she inadvertently moved it despite Miyako's claim that it was impossibly heavy.

"Wait... what did-"

A familiar explosion of light silenced whatever sentence Miyako was about to say. First the light from the digimental and than a second aura from the digivice hanging from her side. She reached down to grab the device just in time to see it apparently... melt? Its form seemed to become a fluid for a few seconds as it shifted and warped, growing slightly before re-solidifying into a familiar form. A generation two digivice with pink trim to match the color of her crest.

"_Whoa, whoa! What- huh?"_

Hikari expected that reaction more from Miyako than her sister considering that the former was actually standing there beside her, but apparently something was happening in the human world as well.

"_What the... Hikari, what's going on? All our sensors just went berserk! We're picking up something from your location; what just happened?"_

Unfortunately, Jou didn't know enough of the technicalities to figure out exactly _what_ the sensors were telling them, but at least the system was set to record all the readings they got so that Koushiro and Ken could take a look at them later.

Hikari wasn't sure how to reply to that. She honestly didn't understand _what_ just happened beyond the obvious. How and why her digivice changed to the new one while the others children's didn't... what made hers different? _Was_ it any different? Too many questions... so all she could really say was the basic facts.

"I moved the digimental and my digivice changed."

"_You- wait, what do you mean 'changed'?"_

"I mean it physically transformed from a generation one digivice into a generation two while I was holding it in my hand."

Couldn't well get much more direct than that. Jou took a moment to contemplate all the implications of this sudden turn of events, not the least of which being that they suddenly had a fourth field member who could fight at the same level as all the others. There were also a dozen or so questions that now hung in the air regarding whether or not the other gen-one digidestined might be able to do the same and, if so, how...

None of that was ever spoken, however. Well before Jou could given another order Hikari noticed a blip on her digivice which was echoed by Miyako's own... then a second as the two of them looked to the tiny screens to check what they were. The third blip was all they needed to see before the knew right away what was happening and what needed to be done.

"Run!"

Hikari didn't even need to give that order. Miyako was already two steps ahead of her, rushing ahead as fast as she could manage without tripping over every damn thing in the cave. Fortunately she had Hawkmon on her shoulder directing her on when to turn, so she was able to avoid getting hurt _too_ badly on the way out.

"_How many?"_

Jou didn't even need to ask what was happening. Enemy ambush... it'd happened enough damn times already that they were almost expecting this sort of thing. He figured that if they were able to detect Hikari picking up the digimental than the Kaiser certainly could... the only problem was how quick it was.

Once again the enemy reacted too quickly for it to be natural. Their intel was too good... but they could deal with that later, once the girls were back safely.

"Looks like... a dozen, maybe. They're fast, though. Probably fliers."

"_Make the call. Do you need backup?"_

"We need a distraction, at least – send them!"

Iori was already waiting at the console with Wizardmon, so when the order came they gate jumped immediately. While Armadillomon evolved into Digmon, Wizardmon flew ahead, lobbing several lightning balls into the air quite literally at random.

His only target was the general direction of the girls that he had seen on Iori's digivice. After launching about five or six of his spheres he cast a second spell, drawing all their power together to create a sudden lightning storm across the area.

Perhaps it was for the best that he completely missed all the enemies, otherwise they might have figured out his secret right away. As impressive a sight as that was, it was a surprisingly weak attack. Wizardmon wasn't a fully evolved digimon like Etemon and Myotismon had been and he wasn't build for combat. His specialty was guile – stealth and manipulation. Suitable, since that's exactly what his attack was... a distraction to get all eyes off of the cave entrance and the girls so that they'd have time to escape.

As usual, his timing was impeccable. The storm came just in time as they reached the exit and both girls rushed out, preparing to digivolve their partners and... well, okay, they weren't actually sure what they were going to do. Miyako could fly away with Halsemon, but they had no idea what Gatomon's new form would be. If she was stuck on the ground then Miyako would have to help distract the enemies so she could get away, otherwise the whole enemy group might converge on her.

Well, no time like the present to figure that out. Hikari held out her digimental, hoping that it worked more or less the same as a crest and that she could simply will the evolution to happen. If not... well, there were gonna be problems.

Fortunately, luck was on her side. Extraordinarily so, in fact... their semi-random search in this sector and her choice to look for a cave had not only succeeded, but turned up a new digimental, giving Hikari the means to actually fight and the other children a new fellow team member to rely on. Then, to top it off, the new form Gatomon took was that of a large winged feline. Winged. She could fly, just like Halsemon.

Hell. Yes.

Hikari had ridden on the backs of the gen-one children's partners enough time that she didn't need any time to adjust once she hopped on the new Gatomon's back. Besides that, the feline was actually an amazingly smooth flier, even considering she had to start dodging giant birds and flying reptiles lobbing projectiles at her almost as soon as she took off.

As soon as Miyako realized that Hikari was in the air with her, she changed course and headed straight back toward the terminal. No fighting, just get out and get home. They got a digimental, the sensor recorded a bunch of data from inside the cave... they found more than they had ever expected to. No reason to hang around and risk losing any of it now... better to take a rest and plan for the next step with their new knowledge and resources.

Unfortunately, it wasn't so simple. Miyako realized rather quickly that Hikari wasn't keeping up like she expected. Apparently Halsemon's incredible speed wasn't a trait that was universal among the team's fliers. Hikari was staying ahead of the pack, but barely... by the time she reached the gate the enemies would too, and if they tried to escape like _that_ then they'd get a replay of her original visit to the digital world.

"Iori, Hikari's not keeping up. I'm going back for h-"

"No! Get to the gate and get ready for a fight. Iori, have Wizardmon cloak you. The enemy shouldn't know you're here yet. Use that – if we ambush them we can cut down their numbers quickly!"

"What if they hit you before you get here?"

"They won't. Trust me."

Miyako was skeptical, but Iori assented and did as ordered. Not much choice, then... if everyone else was going through with this, going against the grain would only put more people in danger. That was the first lesson any of the first gen children ever gave them – teamwork. You work together or not at all.

As Miyako reached the gate and came down to land, she found herself suddenly flanked on either side by two perfect duplicates of herself and partner. She hadn't quite been expecting that, though she certainly didn't mind the help. Still... it made her briefly wonder where all the children would be now if not for Wizardmon. It seemed that the little magician was more useful to the team than even the children themselves...

It wasn't long before Hikari came into view, and as she did Miyako suddenly understood why Hikari was so certain that she wouldn't be hit. Though she was consistently within range of the enemies pursuing her, not one of their attacks even got close. What her feline partner lacked in raw speed she made up for in agility. She danced through the sky with the same grace and ease that she had on the ground as Gatomon. If not for the fact that there were so many enemies pursuing her, Miyako would have almost thought she seemed... _bored_ dodging them so easily.

Miyako waited until Digmon appeared, firing his drills up into the core of the clustered enemies. Apparently he'd been practicing his aim... all five got solid hits, three on rings and the others on the digimon's bodies. Halsemon surged forward, firing at the two stunned enemies to destroy the rings Digmon had missed, nearly cutting the group in half from its original size.

Miyako and Iori both expected the rest of the fight to be a nuisance... they'd had to fight a few times during scouting missions and the enemies always resorted to scattering harassing the children when they no longer had the numbers for a direct attack. However... this time they wouldn't have a chance.

Immediately following Halsemon's attack, Hikari's companion twisted and doubled back with such insane flexibility that the other children had to wonder how she didn't break her own back in the process. As she spun she fired a beam from her forehead, and a second once she was righted again. Two direct hits, both against rings.

When the rest of the enemies converged on her, she didn't try to dodge. She went straight in, ducking under one shot and twisting past another, leading to one of the avians hitting another by accident, though it also sent Hikari and her partner directly toward the maw of one of the larger bird creatures.

For a moment Miyako thought the creature was going to eat her whole until she cut to the side at the last second, firing a pair of gems from the bracers on her front paws to knock out two more rings. With the larger bird blocking the remaining enemies' sight of her, she turned back almost casually and shot down its ring with another beam from her forehead, rising up over its head to fire at the remaining enemies with another pair of gems.

All of that transpired in only a few short seconds, leaving the other children and their partners feelings almost... stunned by the brutal efficiency of it all. They had all thought they were fighting pretty good up until now... always against terrible odds and yet somehow coming out on top with a little bit of cleverness and tenacity, but that... that put them all to shame. The way she grazed the enemies' attacks without fear of being hurt, twisted and turned, striking each blow with perfect aim and precision... it was beautiful and terrifying, and for the first time the new digidestined were able to see a glimpse of Gatomon's origins.

While some of the children had been trained by the Hunters, they had never had to fight for their lives until the war began. Gatomon, on the other hand... she was trained for years under the whip and claw of Myotismon. She rose to prominence in his ranks not simply due to loyalty but also due to ability. She was one of the best there was... brutal, merciless and efficient, a fighter second only to Phantomon and, of course, Myotismon himself.

Well, now they were both dead and she was still alive... that put her at the top in terms of skill, and now that she could finally evolve again and stand at the forefront of the fight, she was going to make sure the Kaiser knew it. Before the war was over, she was going to teach that arrogant bastard the meaning of _fear_...

With the enemies cleared, Hikari headed back to the gate and landed, eager to get out of there quickly, before more reinforcements potentially arrived. While the other digidestined were distracted by the sight of her partner tearing apart half the enemy attack force, her thoughts were already going back to the cave and the platform where she found her digimental. They needed to come back and investigate that later... likely in a few days, after the attention from their first visit had died down.

Once she got back, she'd also be speaking to Jou and Mimi about investigating the possibility of intel leakage, or worse... spies. She hadn't missed the fact of the Kaiser's reaction time... those fliers weren't fast enough to reach them so quickly if they had started from the spire at the same time as she grabbed the digimental, which meant they had to have been sent early. The enemy knew they were coming, _again_.

She needed to know how. Perhaps they had some way to detect when the children came through the terminals... hell, maybe the _Kaiser_ had made the terminals and had a built in program to tell whenever they were activated. Who could know? But whatever it was, they had to figure it out, and the easiest possibility to test for was spies.

If they could travel to the digital world completely covertly, without alerting anyone in the Hunters then they could test the Kaiser's reaction time. If the enemy still anticipated them then they could write off the possibility of spies. If not then... well, it may be time to start cleaning house again.


	10. Armament

Remember to check the top of my profile page for a link to the Digital Hazard forum, made by Swords and Roses. Updates and background story info will be regularly posted there.

A/N: Thanks to UBA and the guest for your reviews. As said, I wasn't trying to ask for reviews, and I probably wouldn't have brought it up at all if all the reviewers hadn't seemed to disappear all at the same time. Also, for some reason I hadn't even considered school as a possible reason... then again, back when I was still in school I tended to be equally busy all year-round, so I tend to forget that other people have more shifting schedules and the like.

Anyway, I'm satisfied with that explanation, so I'm gonna just forget about that now and focus on the writing again. This chapter obviously came a bit later, so I'm gonna have to double up over the next few days to catch up and have another chapter ready by the end of this week...

Chapter 10: Armament

**Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts.**

The days following the last mission were rife with activity. With Gatomon gaining the ability to fight at the level of the other children and joining the field team proper, Hikari immediately approached Masaharu about instituting the next level of training for the generation two children... active combat.

Neither the new children nor their partners were prepared, physically or mentally, to fight Nefertimon. Mentally, it was a completely new kind of challenge to be throwing all their attacks at a friend, knowing that actually landing a hit could be quite harmful. They hesitated time and again, and were only able to start slowly working it out of their system by the sheer force of the aggression that Hikari and Nefertimon demonstrated against them.

Physically, Nefertimon was at a completely different level than either of them. Though they were technically comparable in terms of actual strength, the skill with which she used that strength set her apart by leaps and bounds. The new children had all been using blunt, brute-force tactics until then, shooting rings, outrunning enemies, catching enemies off guard with ambushes... effective, but nothing like Gatomon had learned to do under Myotismon.

Shoot to the right, deliberately miss, hit the target when they instinctively dodge left. Make yourself an easy target, wait for the enemy to momentarily pause to make their attack, then strike in the instant they're exposed. Charge the enemy's attack, dodge at the last moment, attack in the moment of surprise...

She even resorted to outright tackling them and then shooting at point-blank range, despite not being as physically robust as some of the others. Who in their right mind would try to ram someone like _Digmon_? Well... apparently someone who knew they would never expect it.

There were limits to the training, of course. Hikari knew they couldn't risk seriously injuring any of their partners... considering they had no idea when they'd have to go back out into the field, she decided to be nice and let them rest as soon as they got tired. Just a little bit of training every day... it'd give them something to do during the waiting period, at any rate.

At the same time, Hikari talked to Masaharu about procuring certain materials for a personal mission of hers in the digital world. He didn't know why she'd need _plaster_, of all things, but he didn't ask either. He figured he'd find out soon enough, as soon as he needed to know.

Then once she returned to him with a mold of the platform where she found her digimental, he understood perfectly...

Two digimentals. One was hers, and the other... well, best not to make any predictions at this point, but ideas certainly came to mind. If nothing else, there was another digidestined active against the Kaiser, and it was possibly connected to the figure who had hacked their systems and sent those text messages, if not being the hacker themselves. It would explain _part_ of how they managed to predict what was coming, anyway.

With regards to the idea of spies, Hikari spoke to Jou and Mimi about it first before jumping the gun and going straight to their superior. They more or less agreed with her assessment, though Mimi reminded them of all the insane shenanigans that took place during the war. Putting aside the fact that it was Takeru doing them, it proved that not everything had the most immediately apparent explanation. It was still worth looking into, but they needed to consider alternatives as well, just in case.

When she went to Maraharu about it he immediately took a few small steps to help, starting with isolating the SDZ activity from the rest of the network and ordering the tech teams to check the entire system and give a full review on network security. There wasn't any way to really hide the fact that they were searching for holes that someone might be able to use to spy on them, but in some ways that was a blessing. Masaharu had wanted to do a check on the system after the hacker was first discovered, but he had no way to justify it. The Kaiser was a known enemy, so everyone would assume that was who they were trying to secure the system from. Nobody even had to mention the hacker's existence... not yet.

On the personnel side, Masaharu had Koushiro to set up a series of programs within the network to observe all personnel activity within the system during the security check – wasn't _that_ complicated compared to the other jobs he had, especially with Andromon there to help him. Then the man ordered a full review of all personnel records of anyone with any sort of access to the records of SDZ activity.

These orders all required approval from the brass, but fortunately Masaharu was able to intimidate them by the merit of his own history. He was the one who had been made temporary director after the previous one had been arrested for treason and his reputation had only grown since then. If they opposed his order, he could have _them_ investigated for spying or treason. Even if it wasn't true, merely the suspicion could be a major blow to any of their political careers for years to come.

Of course, this came at the expense of revealing that the investigation was being done to root out spies, but that was what Koushiro's programs were for. If anyone's system activity showed a sudden, suspicious shift in behavior once the investigation started, they'd know who to investigate the most...

For once Hikari was actually feeling satisfied with the work the team was doing. They no longer felt as idle as they had been for so long... Sora and Jou were able to get more involved in the training as well, being the most ideal choices to instruct Miyako and Iori in combat tactics. Sora and Biyomon were the experts on airborne combat. On the other hand, Gomamon's evolved forms were both bulkier and and better armored than some, just like Digmon. The methods and techniques they used were the easiest to directly transfer to the new children, and with Hikari to train against they could finally start practicing them in safety, without having to pick a fight against the Kaiser's forces.

Hikari noticed that Momoe was also showing her face a bit around the base every so often. She couldn't be around all the time as she was often busy helping her family run their store, but she was able to make regular visits to observe the children's training and keep up to date on their general progress. Masaharu was already talking about offering her position as a team assistant in SDZ, but he was going to hold that off at least until the spy hunt was finished...

Several days passed before they finally got word from Koushiro that his team had finished filtering most of the data, though it would take a few more being spent analyzing the results before they could draw any solid conclusions about the nature of the rings.

Two days later, they were still waiting for word that they had finished the analysis when the call came. Koushiro personally made a mandatory call order to every member of SDZ, including command staff. Masaharu sent a special request to Miyako to bring Momoe along as well. If this was going to involve everyone, it'd have to include her as well. She'd be a member of SDZ eventually so it was quicker just to get her filled in on everything that was happening now to save them time later on.

One particular oddity of the meeting was that it wasn't being held in the SDZ command room like the others. Instead, they were using the general briefing room for the senior staff... though once they arrived it made sense as to why.

Hikari and Gatomon were some of the first to arrive, stepping in to find three people already present and waiting for her. Two, Hikari recognized – Masaharu and Ryo. One, she didn't... brown hair, dark blue eyes, and a rigid military posture that seemed an appropriate fit for his deep blue uniform... a commander's uniform.

"Commander Kaiba."

He turned to her with an expression that would have terrified most people. She recognized the type immediately... cold, hard, professional enough to cut someone down for bending the rules, but with enough of an edge to break them himself if given good enough reason.

She wasn't impressed, though. Respectful, yes, but impressed? No, this man clearly didn't have the same level of obsession of one who she had met in the war. He was still just a man... strong, military, professional, and as far as commanders went one of the best they had, but he wasn't superhuman. Not like some...

"Miss Yagami. Where is the Lieutenant?"

"On his way. And no, he never told me why he stepped down."

The commander narrowed his eyes slightly. Hikari raised a brow in response. Of course I know what you were gonna ask. Taichi never told _me_ why, so he obviously never told you either. Do I really have to explain this?

Apparently the answer was no since the commander simply turned away without inquiring further. Glancing aside, Hikari could only assume that Masaharu and Ryo were surprised by her behavior somehow, based on their expressions. Well... Ryo was, anyway. Masaharu wasn't so much, though he did appear a bit wary. He understood her reasons, of course... she'd been trained by Takeru. This kind of behavior was normal. Still... if she decided to take her attitude any further there might be problems. Kaiba tended to be a bit more strict on the matter of insubordination than Takeru had been...

Hikari took a seat at roughly the center of one side of the long table, pulling Gatomon up onto her lap and waiting for the rest of the children to file in behind her, along with their partners. Of all people, Mimi was first, followed shortly by Miyako, Momoe and Iori. Then the gen-ones arrived, Taichi being one of the first, with Sora right at his side. When he stepped in, Kaiba said nothing about his absence during the week. No doubt they'd talk about that in private later...

"Commander,"

Hikari spoke up suddenly, eyes drifting across the children around her, though she wasn't really concentrating on them. She'd arrived about fifteen minutes early and had been sitting the entire time... she was getting bored, and besides that she had been thinking a lot and a question had just occurred to her... one she wanted to ask before Ken arrived.

"Were you an associate of Director Nakamoto during the war?"

She got a few confused glances at that, but her eyes fell on the commander and ignored the rest. They knew of the director, certainly, but they had no sense of why that might be significant to Hikari. Gatomon's slight shifting in her lap indicated that she knew what was going on, but she wasn't going to do anything to alert the others to it. After all, nobody else knew about their story time with Takeru that took place a year before. As for Masaharu... well, he was keeping his gaze deliberately averted, so she couldn't tell anything about what he was thinking.

Kaiba didn't give any visible reaction to that name, indicating that perhaps it didn't mean much to him. Then again, maybe he just had an excellent poker face.

"I knew _Commander_ Nakamoto before the invasion, but I didn't transfer here until after the war."

"I personally recommended him as head of the military branch while I was still acting director."

Hikari raised a brow to Masaharu as he interjected. Interesting... that brought up two interesting things of note. First, Masaharu apparently knew of the commander before he arrived... and two, though it was subtle, she was pretty sure he was trying to divert the topic away from any mention of Nakamoto...

She pondered for a moment how Masaharu would have known of him. A contact through the commanders he already knew within the Hunters was most likely, though she had to wonder... that wasn't really good enough reason to earn a personal recommendation from Masaharu, so what convinced him to do that?

Regardless, Ken soon arrived and she ended the conversation there. She'd pursue that line of questioning later on, in private.

After Ken, Yamato was the last to step in, bringing Jou and Daisuke along with him. Daisuke's arm was still in a sling, but at least he was moving... and hey, he was apparently attentive as well. That indicated that he _probably_ wasn't high on pain killers, so he might actually remember this meeting! When he sat down and winced it pretty much confirmed Hikari's suspicions. Good. He was recovering well, then.

Once nearly everyone was present, Masaharu picked up his phone and sent a text that he'd prepared in advance. Less than a minute later, Koushiro stepped into the room, holding his laptop in one hand while Tentomon carried in a thick folder full of papers. Hikari didn't have to guess what _that_ was... research data. A whole freaking lot of it.

The commander stood up first, both to start the meeting and to give Koushiro time to set up his things.

"So that you are all aware, this meeting is being held here for the sake of security. As you've all heard, we're currently investigating the ranks of the Hunters for potential spies that might be assisting the Kaiser. Because the SDZ command room was not considered secure enough for this briefing, I authorized the meeting to be held here. There are no cameras, no listening devices, and every piece of technology is completely isolated from the rest of the facility in order to render hacking impossible. No records of this will be kept, and nobody outside of the room will know what is spoken here. Now, Mr. Izumi, the floor is yours. Proceed with the briefing."

Hikari sensed something off about Koushiro as he nodded and shifted his position over slightly to the head of the table. His mood was... not somber. Worried? No, not it either. She couldn't quite place it, but something had him off... more than she'd ever seen him before, in fact. Even right after his declaration of the digital emergency at the start of this whole conflict he wasn't _this_ unsettled. Just what the hell had he discovered?

"Alright... I'm going to get right to the point. The rings aren't what we thought at all. While they work as a means to control digimon, they aren't actually mind-control devices or... whatever. They have a very different function..."

Hikari's eyes snapped over to Sora suddenly. The girl noticed and offered a confused glance in return, unsure of why Hikari had eyed her as she did. Apparently she wasn't getting the same sense of deja vu that she had before, but Hikari certainly was. This was... familiar. She'd heard these words before, though she couldn't peg down exactly where. Something in the war... but she couldn't recall anything in Myotismon's arsenal that reminded her of this.

"Part of the reason we couldn't filter out the nonsense data at first was that we didn't realize what we were trying to filter. All told, the final process actually took maybe two days. The rest of the week was spent being confused over just what the hell we were looking at..."

Koushiro motioned to Ryo who then went to retrieve a cable that was coiled up under the table as Masaharu reached over to the wall and pushed a button. A few seconds later, several double-sided screens came down from the ceiling directly over the table.

"The data for the rings was actually mixed in with the data for the individual digimon. When we figured that out we initially assumed it was simply because the rings link themselves to the digimon to control them, but no... they actually alter part of the digimon's data. I presume that's the primary reason for the color change, but the alteration isn't actually physical. It's just a symptom of the _real_ change."

Koushiro paused, taking a deep breath. Here we go... the part that he was dreading. The reason he had called this sudden meeting in the first place... pushing a button, an image appeared on the screens of one of the rings, complete with the digi-code around the outer-edge. A second later the ring moved to one side and a glowing sphere appeared next to it.

"These rings actually alter the function of the digimon's digi-core. Most of you know digi-cores simply from the fact that Myotismon was killed by having his destroyed. In essence, it's the soul of a digimon... and these rings operate by overriding the functionality of the digimon's core and changing it. How they actually _do_ this is extremely complex and I don't even understand most of it yet, but I'll summarize what I do know..."

He switched the image again and both objects turned semi-transparent, with a series of tangled lines appearing on the surface of each. The lines detached from the objects in question and moved away from them, taking positions side-by-side near the bottom of the screen. The structure of the two metaphorical balls of string appeared somewhat similar, though the one from the glowing sphere was clearly far more complex.

"The core of the rings' code appears to be structured similar to that of an... artificial digi-core. When a ring takes control of a digimon, it appears to somehow infiltrate the creature's core, linking itself and its functions to the digimon's and overriding its will. How it does this is so far a mystery and, by all rational standards, ought to be impossible. It's exhibiting the behavior of a virus, but analysis shows that the rings' primary attribute is _data_. However... when I started doing an in-depth analysis I found something... worrying. The design of the rings actually closely resembles something we've encountered before."

Another switch and the sphere disappeared along with its string ball. In its place appeared something that the new children didn't recognize at all, but the first gen children most certainly did... a black gear. Another tangle of string emerged from it and moved down beside the one from the ring. This time they appeared much similar in structure and complexity... almost identical, in fact.

"These rings appear to be re-engineered versions of the black gears originally employed by Devimon to take over digimon on File Island. The original gears _did_ possess a virus attribute, but the Kaiser apparently altered that trait. For what reason... I can't say. I'm still analyzing the structure of the rings to try to figure out exactly how they work, but it's difficult due to the area that they operate in. The complexity of a digi-core is... insane, frankly. I'd honestly say it's difficult for most people to _fathom_... it'll take me weeks before I can start to draw _any_ clear conclusions about these things. However, I have found _one_ fact of importance which may help us in our fight against the Kaiser."

The screen transitioned again and everything fell away except for the original ring. The device began to rotate and the digi-code symbols on the side appeared to peel off of it and move down to the bottom of the screen. Once they were all gone from its surface, the ring disappeared, leaving only the illuminated code.

"The Kaiser appears to be controlling these rings by transmitting orders to them by means of a powerful signal. I can't currently track the source of the signal, but I've been able to identify it without a doubt..."

The digi-code letters shifted, disassembling and folding together into a thin line at the bottom of the screen. A moment later a distorted sound came out of Koushiro's laptop and the line expanded out into what appeared to be an extremely chaotic audio signal.

"This is the signal that controls the rings, and _this_..."

A second signal appeared above the first, looking obviously very similar... likely identical.

"...is the signal of the interference that's been keeping some of us out of the digital world and preventing our partners from evolving."

Just to make the point perfectly clear, the two signals changed color, one to red and the other to green, then moved together to overlap. When they did, the entire signal turned yellow. Not a single tiny line of red or green deviated from the center... they were literally identical.

Koushiro took a step back from his computer and went silent, looking first to the commander and then to the rest of the team. That was it... everything he'd learned so far. He'd continue working on the rest, but this... he needed to get everyone briefed on this immediately. It was too important to wait until he was done with his analysis.

Silence hung over the entire room. The gen-one team was particularly somber, with all the memories of Takeru and Devimon coming back with a vengeance. The gen-two team was less upset, but they were equally tense... before they were just fighting some dude with mind-control powers, but _this_... this made them feel completely out of their league. Even if the technology was ripped off of Devimon, it was still insanely advanced, and this news seemed to pretty well extinguish their hopes of getting the gen-one children to come and help them in this war. If Koushiro couldn't even _understand_ the signal, how the hell was he going to find a way to negate it?

Hikari, however, was the quietest of all. The rings... and the gears. Now she understood why both she and Sora had felt that sense of deja vu... for Sora, it had been the original fight that she'd been a part of back on File Island. Digimon being taken over by an unknown force and made to fight them. For Hikari it was something else... a conversation she'd held with a digimon atop Infinity Mountain. Even the words had been much the same... both were used for mind control, but that wasn't their true purpose.

Though she understood a little something about the rings now... and by extension, apparently about the gears as well. Of course, the rings were redesigned from the original gears, so they weren't exactly the same, but she imagined that they were at least similar in the fact that they affected the digimon's digi-core. That brought a terrifying new light to everything that Devimon had been doing in the first place.

The gears didn't work... that's what Ogremon had said. Broken, or flawed... if that's the case, just what the _hell_ was Devimon trying to create in the first place?

That wasn't the biggest concern though... Devimon's scheming was a long-term problem, but the more immediate issue was in the here and now, with the Kaiser. The fact that he or she was using copies of the gears to do their work... it put them in more or less the same category as Devimon, and who in the world hated Devimon more than the one who had lost everything to him?

Takeru.

The missing digimental next to her own... someone had taken it, but hadn't contacted them. Why were the digivices sent from that sector? It wasn't a choice... that's where the digimental was. Why hadn't they been contacted? Because that was the Kaiser's territory... and without backup, whoever took it could have been easily surrounded and captured.

Who else could it be? They hadn't heard from Takeru at all since all this mess started, and if he was the one who took the digimental, then now she had a good idea as to why... he _couldn't_ contact them. He was a prisoner in the fortress of the Kaiser, trapped behind enemy lines without the means to free himself, having been given no time to prepare or implement any of his insane plots.

Of course, there were still holes in her theory... the biggest being the question of how he got into the digital world where the rest of them couldn't. It also left the question of the hacker completely in the open since there was no way that could be Takeru if he was locked away...

"So the signal's everything, then."

Momoe was the first one to speak up, likely due to the fact that her general unfamiliarity of the situation made it easier for her to cope with the worries that came with this new information.

"If you can find a way to block, or even just interfere with the signal, then you can stop the rings and regain the ability for everyone to evolve again."

That was... well, actually, that was surprisingly comforting. Granted, it seemed like a nearly insurmountable goal given the difficulty and complexity of the task at hand, but it also meant that if somehow they _could_ succeed then they could effectively win the entire war in an instant.

"So what's our priority, then?"

Next was Ryo. The core team was still quiet, each one still adjusting to the news and the implications of everything they had learned. Still, they knew that had work to do. It was just a question of what... Koushiro finding a way to block the signal would be fantastic, but until that happened they had to keep dealing with the Kaiser on the ground. His armies, his bases... the team had to start doing some real damage and build up some momentum, otherwise they'd never make any progress.

"The spires."

Finally one of the team spoke and, of all people, it was Taichi. When Hikari glanced up to look his way, she was surprised to find he was actually looking back at her. She wasn't really sure why... hell, her insane tactics were what pissed him off so much before.

"We need more intel. The rings were just the first step... we need to start pushing back, and we can't do that until we understand everything we can about the Kaiser's arsenal. The enemy has a spire in every sector they control... we need to figure out why."

"Given how fortified the spires are, trying to attack one would be suicide."

It seemed suitable that Yamato would be the first to reply. Even with everything that had happened since then, they never failed to function as a perfect balance to the other. Still, it seemed a little strange that Taichi chose to step down as team leader and yet he was still commanding...

"That _used_ to be true... but before we had only three main fighters, all of which hadn't been at this for more than a week."

Taichi gave Hikari another knowing glance and suddenly she understood why he had been looking at her before. Of _course_... her obtaining a digimental was a game changer, both because of her personal behavior and because of the training she was now giving to the rest of the gen-two children.

Hikari was going to reply, but before she had the chance Taichi stood. What... what was he doing? He looked like he was about to make an announcement. Wait, was this about...

"By now everyone knows that I've stepped down as the team leader of SDZ, and almost nobody knows why... I'm going to make this simple; starting today, I will be joining the field team in all future operations. The reason I stepped down was so that if I got injured in the field we wouldn't be left without a team leader."

"Taichi, that's _insane_."

Most of the team was surprised to hear Jou be the one to counter Taichi's idea and not Yamato... Taichi knew why though, as did Sora. In a way, Yamato had actually _suggested_ this idea. Perhaps not in so many words, but he made it clear that Taichi's lack of involvement with the fighting was his own fault and no mere product of circumstance. If he wanted to fight... well, then he had to fight. No excuses.

"It wasn't insane for _Hikari_. It wasn't insane for all the resistance members who helped in the last mission. It's dangerous, but that never stopped me before... I can't lead from the back. Never could... you all know that. So either I join the field team or I leave SDZ."

Sora promptly stood next as Biyomon flitted up to the back of the chair behind her.

"I'm going too. I'll be able to help better in the field where I can actually see what's going on... besides, Taichi needs someone around to keep him from doing anything stupid."

Jou was dumbstruck. Now there were _two_ of them? Damn it, had the whole team lost their minds?

"Commander?"

Jou turned to Kaiba then, hoping against hope that he might be able to say something to deter those two from going through with this, but no luck... on the contrary, he actually seemed to be in favor of the idea.

"Lieutenant Yagami already requested my permission, and Captain Ishida reported Ms. Takenouchi's intention to follow. They're both experienced field combatants, so I approved their requests. I have nothing further to say about it."

Jou groaned and leaned his face forward into his hands. Worse and worse... was there nobody in the team who was using sense anymore? Daisuke's stupidity had been bad enough, and he actually _had_ a partner that could evolve. What was going to happen to _these_ two if they got into a major fight?

"This is completely insane... you're going to get yourselves _killed_ out there."

"Maybe not."

Koushiro interjected, drawing the attention of everyone in the room as he so often did whenever he interrupted a conversation that he had no part in. He was known for pulling a few miracles out of his hat every now and then, and times like these were when such things were most common...

"I have a... project that may be able to help everyone. I started it back in the first war, then I recovered it from my old archives after Daisuke got hurt... I've been busy with the information on the rings, but I can put that aside for a few days to focus on this."

Then Kaiba stood once more, signaling for Koushiro to start grabbing his things and taking them away.

"We're done here. Anything directly relating to projects and operations can be handled in the SDZ command room. Now, until further notice Yamato Ishida is the sole active team leader. Additionally, Ken Ichijouji is being transferred to the civilian branch and Ryo Akiyama is being promoted to act as military oversight for the division, answering directly to me."

Most of the children didn't quite catch all the unspoken implications of his words, though few did... Ken being one of them, which became evident when he replied.

"By whose request was I transferred, sir... _officially_?"

"Your own."

Ken nodded and a few of the children around the table offered confused looks. Fortunately, they all understood the big picture... politics. More damned politics. Most of them could scarcely figure out this crap with all the mind games these people played and they didn't care to... they just focused on the war.

However, Hikari was one of the relatively small number that understood it all perfectly.

With the removal of Taichi and Ken from the military branch, it made SDZ an almost exclusively civilian-run division. The act of giving Ryo oversight of the division appeared to be a futile attempt to keep some military control of things, though that was only to anyone who didn't know that Kaiba himself had actually ordered Ken's transfer to the civilian division.

It was deception, plain and simple. A giant act, staged by the commander... the one really in charge of the team was Masaharu, and only because the children trusted him. They were neither civilian nor military... they were digidestined, loyal to their own, and uninvolved in politics. Though they may have all been officially under the command of the civilian branch, they were under nobody's command except their own. Making it look like the civvies were in charge simply served to placate them... make them feel more in control.

"That's all. Dismissed."

* * *

Once the details of the project had been laid out, there were only two complaints raised about it, both by Daisuke. First, Koushiro didn't give it any special project name, and all cool projects should have equally cool names to go with them, at least in his opinion.

Second, why the heck didn't he tell them about this thing _sooner_? Like, before his arm got torn up, sooner.

"In short, the project is only a few steps better than worthless. While my production methods for data-based materials have improved, the design of said materials still lags far behind. I had theorized the concept of trying to produce armor in the same way as I produced clothing back during Etemon's initial invasion, but I could never find a way to make the armor effective enough to be worth it. Honestly... I _still_ haven't."

Koushiro scrolled through a number of theoretical designs on the screen, all clearly untouched by Mimi's fashion sense as they were much more utilitarian than pretty. Though honestly the designs weren't that bad... based on what Hikari could tell at a glance, they probably would have made pretty good suits of armor to be worn in the field... if they were actually strong enough to stop anything more than spitballs.

While the majority of the team looked over the basic designs as Koushiro explained his various concepts on how to make them useful in the field, Miyako sat apart from the rest, reviewing all the data that Koushiro _wasn't_ showing. In the archive he mentioned before, he had recorded each step of the project thus far and the evolution of his methods, and now all that data was laid out cleanly for her to study.

Matter structure, coding processes, adaptive algorithms... she had learned about this project before and the process of producing data-based matter but she hadn't really taken the time to look into it in any detail. Koushiro said it was a dead-end and she assumed it was true... after all, he was the genius in the group. If _he_ couldn't figure it out then there was no way she could either, right? Right...

Well, maybe not.

There was something about all this... something she couldn't place, but it seemed so familiar. It reminded her of Takeru's projects, of all the bizarre insanity he'd been researching during the war... most of what she read went completely over her head, but she was able to pick out a few intelligible things, and of them pointed to the same thing. Simply put, Takeru tended to think and work in completely the opposite way that everyone else did.

She couldn't do what he did, but for the first time she could see a glimpse of that genius and how she might be able to imitate it in some small way. Thus far, all of Koushiro's work on this project had been completely linear. Start with creating data-based energy, then matter, then improve on that matter step by step... eventually reaching the point where he could, in theory, start to produce living digital matter.

But what if... it were to go in reverse? What if, rather than trying to create more advanced versions of what they had or reach forward to the next level, they stepped forward _to_ the next level and then reached _back_? Don't take the basic matter they had and produce living matter out of it... instead, take living materials and downgrade them to something more basic. Simplify instead of complicate...

"Miyako?"

By now Momoe had noticed her sister's odd behavior. Usually whenever Koushiro gave his long explanations about projects and the like Miyako would be the most attentive, but this time she was sitting alone, away from the rest and deeply immersed in whatever it was she was studying on the screen...

Momoe had to say her name a few more times to actually catch her attention, and even then she was distracted. It was like she was in a trance... Momoe had never seen her like that before, and it was somewhat disturbing. It was like she'd taken a step out of her body and was operating inside a world that was completely within her own mind. Her one-track mind taken to the extreme, it seemed...

"What is it? What are you looking at?"

"I can fix this."

Ken and Hikari both noticed the conversation taking place and drifted over in the direction of the Inoue sisters. The rest of the team was still oblivious to what was going on, though not for much longer...

"_Fix_ it? What do you mean?"

"I can... _fix_ it! I can... do the _thing_, make it _work_! I can... I can _complete_ this. This whole project! I know how to make what we need with this..."

"Do it."

Though they had no sense of context, the whole team had overheard Miyako's less-than-coherent rant and was interested in some kind of further explanation. Taichi, however, didn't much care for that. Explanations were for people who could help, but Miyako apparently didn't _need_ any help, so it didn't matter if they understood what she was talking about. All he needed to know was whether or not she could make good on her claim.

"What do you need to make it happen?"

Yamato followed up, taking several steps away from the others and over toward Miyako's terminal. He figured he should be the one leading this since... well, he _was_ technically the leader now.

Miyako went silent, running backward through all of her ideas and trying to figure out how to make this into reality. She had the coding processes all here, but she needed the other piece. She needed... data. Living data. Something that would be suitable for... for armor?

Armor. All their digimon partners... they originally called the process armor digivolution. What better to base _their_ armor on than what was being worn by their own partners? But for that...

"Sensors. All of them. Set them up around the platform and link them together."

Yamato nodded and called Ryo over to go get everything approved. It seemed like an odd request though... those sensors had been made to be used in the digital world, and Miyako wanted to use them _here_? Not just in the human world, but inside the base? Well, she must have had some good reason for it... or he hoped so, at least. In either case, at least there wasn't much risk of the equipment getting wrecked if they were using inside their own base, so even if this idea didn't amount to anything it wouldn't cost them anything except time.

While the Hunter techs got to work linking up the sensor net, Miyako lassoed Ken and Koushiro over into helping her link up all the terminals throughout the room as well. If this was going to work then she was going to need a _lot_ of processing power to make it happen...

Once everything was set up, she started by walking all the resistance members through the middle of the sensor net in order to get her initial readings. As suspected, the sensors needed to be calibrated. They were focused on the wrong kind of data... attributes and overall strength. She needed raw _material_ data. She wasn't trying to create a digimon, just take bits and pieces off their bodies...

...okay, that sounded creepy even in her head.

At _any_ rate, it took a few runs and a bit of help from her fellow geeks before she was finally able to get the sensors calibrated to where she needed them. Then she went through and stood every digimon they had in every form they had in the middle of the grid for a few minutes to gather as much data as she could from them. Gen-one, gen-two, pre-evolution, post-evolution, and every single member of the resistance to boot...

She got even more data than she expected. Enough to keep her busy with this project for weeks. She wasn't enough of an expert to be able to understand it all at a glance... she'd need some time to study it first, but she was still able to draw a few immediate conclusions.

First, Wizardmon's data was _weird_... and useless. Useless to the project, anyway. She'd likely have to scrap all of it before the end... he was different than the others in ways she couldn't make sense of. Maybe it had something to do with his odd abilities, but either way it didn't much matter. Wizardmon had no natural armor like Andromon or any of their partners, so she wasn't going to be basing anything off of him anyway.

Second, it was impossible to copy anything from the digimon directly due to their attributes. Data, virus, vaccine... everybody understood the general principles of their existence, but nobody had really taken a hard look at them before. Now, after all this talk about digi-cores, she recognized something she hadn't seen before. While all of the digimon's bodies had the qualities of a given attribute, the attribute wasn't coded into the matter directly. Instead, it was derivative of the data contained within their digi-core.

This essentially meant that by altering the traits of the digi-core – their mind and personality – one could completely change the form of the creature's body. That explained why the appearances of evil and good digimon reflected their personalities in such a direct, and she would dare say _cliche_, manner. However, it also meant that would have to work that much more to reverse-engineer the data into something they could use. It was impossible for her to produce matter that had any of those attributes without creating a digi-core to go with it, and there were no way in hell _that_ was happening.

Finally, third... she still needed more data. A _lot_ more, but not from the digimon. She needed scans from the digital world itself. Information on the hard structure of matter there... the rocks, the trees... buildings would be good, if they could find some to use. Metal structures would be the best option since that material would most closely resemble the kind of armor she was going to try to produce, but she wasn't wasn't going to be picky. For now she'd take what she could get.

It took a bit longer to get approved to transport every single available sensor to the digital world, but with a little help from the commander they got it through. At least they weren't taking them into the Kaiser's territory. The brass should have been grateful for that...

The data recovery operations in the digital world wouldn't be handled by Miyako. Instead, she appointed the Yagami siblings to handle that. They were to go to the digital world, set up the sensors at various locations, and record all the data they could on every type of structure and material available. Mountains, rivers, forests, towns... the process took days, and all the while Miyako continued with her work, reading and processing the data in search of a means to properly duplicate it.

She got some help from Koushiro and Ken, though surprisingly, neither of them was able to easily keep up with her. Not that they were in any way lacking for skill, but the kind of work she was doing was outside the norm for them... heck, they didn't even know if what she was trying to do was even _possible_. It was all theoretical, along the same vein as the work that Takeru did back when he was head of SDZ.

Nevertheless, after several days of gathering and reviewing data, she managed to hit the breakthrough she was looking for. It emerged after a full day of study, comparing the traits of Andromon's armor plates with the walls of the factory he once guarded. They were similar enough that she could easily draw some direct connections between the two. Between the similarities and differences, she was able to develop a rough data map which she could apply to other materials to help her translate them from living data to a non-living form that she could mass produce.

It wasn't _everything_ she needed, but it should be enough to base her work on. However... first she had to test it, and for that task she employed the entire field team to help her. Flamedramon, Digmon and Nefertimon would handle the testing while Miyako herself judged the results. Finding a random, deserted spot outside of the Kaiser's territory, she created a series of metal 'target' walls. Koushiro suggested they take the sensors along, but she didn't need them for this. They could tell all they needed to know with their own eyes.

Each partner was given two targets, one made of the same material as the factory walls and the other was her new, synthesized armor material. The task was simple: Attack each one with equal force until one of them breaks, then compare their condition at the end.

The results were... somewhat mixed. Heat tolerance was roughly the same as both walls more or less melted into puddles at nearly the same time. The stress tolerance of her new material was _slightly_ better... Digmon's drills cut through them both around the same time, but her material didn't crack and crumble like the other one did.

Impact resistance was the greatest difference though... Nefertimon blasted the factory wall to pieces in a couple quick shots, but Miyako's armor wall survived in surprisingly good condition. It showed marks of the damage, of course, but at least it hadn't broken. Out of simple curiosity, Hikari decided to shoot the wall a few more times to see how long it lasted. One, two... three more shots and it was _still_ standing. Granted, it was so riddled with holes by that point as to be useless, but it somehow it remained intact regardless. For whatever reason, the damn thing just _would not _crumble.

That was a major plus. It was being made into _armor_, after all. If it was too brittle then there was a risk of it splintering under a heavy impact, in which case it would actually cause more damage to the children than it was blocking...

There were countless refinements that could be made, but this was enough to start with. Miyako immediately moved on to applying her process to the data she had taken from each of the children's partners. Her new materials were then combined it with Koushiro's designs to create the base template from which she'd start production.

It was a long and exhausting project, and in truth it wasn't even finished yet... she'd have to continue doing research and making improvements in the weeks and even months to come, but none of that mattered once she finally rolled out her first copy of the field armor. All that mattered is that she had done it, and more than that she had done it on her own. Not as a helper, not in the shadow of Koushiro and Ken and the gen-one children... this was _her_ project, and she had made it work.

* * *

Miyako couldn't stop smiling as each of the digidestined filed into the SDZ command room, usually with identical reactions. They just stopped and stared for several seconds at the large clothing rack that stood in the center of the room, on which hung several of Miyako's first generation field suits.

This was a triumph. Miyako had even made a note on the official Hunter project report.

_Project Status: HUGE SUCCESS_

It was hard to overstate her satisfaction. She finally proved herself an equal to her peers and had done what nobody else could... well, nobody except maybe Takeru, but he wasn't here so she chose to say he didn't count. _She_ was still the one who did the work and helped the team. Forget about the hypothetical, this was reality.

She had finally done something to earn the respect of the geniuses. Not to say they hadn't necessarily respected her before, but she'd always felt that part of that was simply a matter of team spirit. They respected her and the others for the fact that they were digidestined, not for anything they'd done... well, not anymore.

The fact of the children's initial confusion only made it better. When they first saw the armor they didn't realize what it was, and why would they? Admittedly, most of it didn't look at all like normal armor. Iori's was the closest because she had taken liberties with his style, but the rest appeared to be the same as normal clothing... at least until one looked closer.

Like all clothing Koushiro coded, each suit had been fitted to a specific wearer. Though they were initially going to be all of the same design, Momoe had been there to remind her of the differences between the children and their fighting styles. Not everyone had the same needs... two fliers, two ground fighters, and two gen-one children whose partners couldn't evolve. Some diversity made sense.

Rather than divide them up into different general designs, Miyako decided to go all out and simply make every suit completely unique. In addition to the differences in the armor structure, this also applied to their overall appearance. Every child had their own style, and their armor would be made to match it.

Miyako waited until everyone arrived, then she stepped out from behind her console to approach Taichi who was standing at the clothing rack, looking everything over.

"So... _this_ is the armor?"

Miyako was still grinning, and the grin only seemed to grow as he spoke. He had no idea why yet, but he was about to find out. Oh, how she was going to enjoy showing all this off...

"Not exactly. There's a lot you don't see. Here... take a look."

Motioning to Andromon to move the rack over to the briefing table, she tapped a button on a console to bring down the projection screen and prepare her presentation. Momoe joined at her request, as much for appearance's sake as anything. It made her look more professional to have an assistant. Linking the screen up to her smart phone also helped. It was a bit more of a hassle to use, but she didn't have to sit at one of the consoles to run everything... plus, it looked cooler this way.

"Okay... first, every suit is fitted to a specific digidestined. No two are exactly the same, so if anyone needs something changed to make it more comfortable or defend better, you don't have to worry about it causing anyone else trouble. Now, since Daisuke's the one that almost lost an arm we'll start with his..."

Daisuke grimaced, more out of annoyance than pain. His arm was still in a sling, but he was recovering amazingly quickly. Momoe said that it had something to do with the tech at the Hunter base... something or other that Jou had apparently been telling her about during her time at the base, but Miyako had been too distracted with her project to remember any of the specifics.

Momoe started by grabbing Daisuke's armor off the rack and laying it out on display across the table as Miyako shot up the armor blueprint onto the screen, highlighting each section as required. Style-wise, it looked like a black leather jacket and pants with an orange and red fire pattern across the back and down the arms of the jacket, as well as coming up from the bottom of the pants.

Well, at least Daisuke wouldn't have to complain about it not being badass enough.

"The base material is similar to leather. I copied it from Nefertimon's skin. She's the only digimon we have whose armor form doesn't have a lot of actual armor, just a really tough hide."

"But her skin's white..."

Daisuke muttered, glancing to Gatomon and then back to the suit a couple times.

"Doesn't matter. Color is the easiest thing to re-code."

"Not sure how I feel about people wearing my skin..."

Gatomon muttered in turn, curling up slightly on Hikari's shoulder. Granted, it wasn't her _actual_ skin, but it was still slightly unnerving to think about.

"_Anyway_...!"

Miyako cleared her throat. Enough distractions. They were taking away from her moment of triumph and she wasn't putting up with that... she was going to get this briefing done, distractions be damned.

"The 'leather' is double-layered and the armor plates are set between them to guard key areas. Forearm and shin guards so digimon can't bite your arms and legs off, shoulder guards for extra protection around your torso and neck, and armored boots in case you decide to soccer-ball anymore digimon in the future."

Daisuke narrowed his eyes, giving Miyako a brief glare. She was clearly making fun of him, taking advantage of the fact he'd injured himself to make a few jokes at his expense. However, based on what the blueprint was showing it was a pretty impressive suit all the same so... he let it slide.

"The plates in the chest and back are smaller and installed in multiple pieces for added flexibility, but we haven't actually tested this yet, so we may have to tweak the design a bit. The best part of all this is that these plates are all based on Flamedramon's armor, so the heat resistance is high. This will reduce the chance of getting hurt by any fire by being close to him."

"Any gloves?"

Taichi inquired almost off-handedly. He couldn't well complain if there weren't since this was still a massive leap ahead of what they had before, but it was still worth knowing. If Daisuke was ever going to try running through fire, they'd want to cover as much of his skin as possible.

"Koushiro didn't have a template for gloves that we could use. I can make some, but we'd have to design them from scratch."

Taichi nodded and motioned for her to continue. Removing the first suit of armor, Momoe set it aside and grabbed the next. It was a gold and gray suit that actually looked like proper armor, though it was also smaller than the others. The inspiration for the design wasn't hard to figure out, but Miyako decided to state it anyway, just for the sake of presentation.

"Iori, you're the little samurai. Full body protection and, like Daisuke, I took your partner's armor to make it, so you have the heaviest protection of the group. Since it's so heavy you'll be a little slower than the others, but you won't need to be as fast to keep up with Digmon anyway."

"Does it come with a helmet?"

Yamato inquired, much like Taichi had before. It wasn't likely to be especially necessary, but it was good to know what their options were, just in case.

"Like the gloves, we didn't have a template. If Iori wants one, we can make it later. However... I do have something else that might make up for it, just in case he gets into any real trouble."

She reached down into the neck of the armor and unclipped something before drawing out a long shape that nobody immediately recognized save Iori himself... he knew in an instant what it was, while the others didn't catch on until Miyako unsheathed it.

"Combat sword. Traditional katana style, same size as your training sword and about as heavy. I had to make it out of a different material though, since Digmon's armor was too heavy, but it shouldn't be a problem. I figure if you're relying on the sword more than your digimon then you're doing something wrong."

"At least we can fight together now, dagyaa!"

Well, at least Armadillomon seemed fairly happy... nodding, Iori took the blade and inspected it for a moment. Hm... not bad. Wouldn't be too hard to wield, even at his size. Still, he felt compelled to have his grandfather inspect it later, just to make sure it met his approval. He didn't want to go into battle with any equipment that his sensei didn't approve of.

The second set of armor was set aside and the third was drawn out. Mostly red with a light gray vest and boots... no big question whose this was, though oddly it seemed to be quite a bit lighter than the others.

"My suit isn't much. Nothing heavy on the arms or legs, but I'm riding on Halsemon most of the time so mobility makes more sense. The vest protects my organs and the boots are made to absorb some shock when I land so I can jump off quicker if I have to. The biggest thing for me is this..."

She muttered and picked up a helmet that matched the appearance of the rest of her suit. Red with silver highlights, and apparently made in the fashion of a air force pilot's helmet.

"Keeps the wind out of my face and has room inside to install the headset, so I can hear everyone easier while in flight. Like everyone else, it uses my partner's armor. Pretty light weight, but it should be all I need in the air..."

Moving on quickly, Momoe pulled that suit aside and grabbed two others that had the appearance of officer uniforms, minus a few visible changes that were clearly made to make room for the armor that was included under the surface. Aside from size the only clear difference between them was color. One was blue with gray highlights at the edges, the other yellow with white highlights.

"Taichi and Sora, you have matching suits. The design is a Hunter uniform with armor plates roughly matching Daisuke's. The material is based on Halsemon's armor though, so it'll be lighter, but it'll also be less resistant to heat. Keep that in mind. Taichi, I don't think you'll be jumping in front of Agumon's fire breath much, but just in case you decide it's a good idea, let me know first so I can switch your armor to Flamedramon-style."

Yamato snickered and Taichi frowned. Seems Daisuke wasn't the only target for jokes here... Sora's sigh indicated that it may not have been simply a joke, but that would be a conversation for another day, if at all. Hopefully Taichi would take slightly saner risks now that he wasn't the main fighter of the team, but they could never be sure.

Setting those aside, Momoe pulled out the final uniform. Its appearance was the most stark of any of them for a number of reasons, which made sense considering who it was for. It was bright pink with white trim, made in the same style as the Hunter uniforms. However, unlike Taichi's and Sora's, there were no clear changes in the design to make room for the extra armor. Apparently she didn't _have_ any extra armor...?

"Okay, Hikari... I'll be honest. I had no idea what to design for yours. Chances of you getting on Nefertimon's back hit are basically zero, but just in case you needed armor I wanted to give you something useful, so I made... this."

Beside the first suit, Momoe set out another, though it was less of an actual suit of armor as a wire frame that had pieces of armor attached to it. They were all stark, solid white and there were pieces made to cover every single part of the body. Vest, arms, legs, shoulders, boots and helmet all. They were all separate as well, so each piece could be taken or left behind as desired.

"You're always talking about options, so I figured... might as well give you some. Full body armor, take as much or as little as you want. The plates can be put on over or under the main suit and they're Halsemon-type, so they're pretty light."

Hikari stepped forward to inspect the suit and armor pieces. From the looks of them, they weren't too hard to strap on... the extra preparation time from having the armor separate from the main suit wasn't likely to be _too_ much, especially after she had a few chances to practice getting suited up. Plus, given all the extra versatility she would have in being able to outfit herself exactly how she wanted for every mission she undertook...

"It's perfect."

High praise. Doubly so since it came from Hikari. There wasn't much for anyone else to say after that... not about the project, at any rate. Nobody could complain about the results they had seen during the last test, and the final product was impressive, to say the least. All that remained was to test them all in the field...

...and as they say, no time like the present.

"Alright everyone, suit up. Surprise training time. Let's find out just how good these things actually are..."

Hikari wasn't stupid enough to take these suits straight into a battle with the Kaiser without making sure they worked as well as advertised. First and foremost, they had to make sure they could actually move around as well as they needed to. No doubt they'd have some problems at the start... after Miyako fixed those, they could double up on their combat training and scouting missions in hopes of finding an opening in the Kaiser's defenses.

Then they could set their sights on their next real target... the silver spires.


	11. Kaiser

A/N: Wewt! Managed to get this chapter done rather quickly after all. It's a little shorter than some, but it's certainly not lacking for content... there is one major event in this chapter that I've been building toward for a while. Though this is also where the story will start to get a little... complex. Starting next chapter, certain things are going to start unfolding that I'm not sure anyone is expecting.

Also, regarding the question about Commander Kaiba... I'll just admit that, yes, the name definitely came from Seto Kaiba. I always liked the name, and you can actually see a reference to it in Book Zero with the slightly altered Captain "Sato." However, in terms of personality, history, etc, Commander Kaiba is completely original, so don't be looking for any references to the original character.

Also, important note: I don't know how much I'll be updating for the next couple weeks. I'm going to be out of state for a while and I don't know how much I'll be able to get written immediate before leaving/after returning. Just letting you all know so that nobody wonders what happened if I don't manage to get any updates in during that time.

Chapter 11: Kaiser

**If there is evil in this world, it lurks in the hearts of man.**

A few more days, a lot more training, several more experiments and just as many refinements made to their armor... Daisuke was starting to regret getting out of that infirmary bed now.

They had gone from being totally idle to working every day, but it wasn't the good kind of work. Kicking the Kaiser's ass? Always good... but this was just training. It was physically exhausting and mentally tedious. Repetitive and hardly rewarding, even when they got compliments from Taichi and the others for how much they had improved.

Well, if nothing else, at least their training wasn't as strenuous as it had been at the start. They were doing less direct combat and more team coordination, which meant they got something of a breather for a few days, until they went back to the standard training again.

Daisuke stretched slightly as he stood from the couch in the lounge room, trying to flex that injured arm a bit. He'd gotten it out of the sling, at least, but he couldn't use it much. He was sorely tempted to head back to the infirmary and see if he could lie down in the DESbed for a few hours to recover faster or, pending that, take a trip to the digital world. The effect seemed to be more or less the same...

Grabbing a drink from the fridge, Daisuke stepped out into the main room. As he did he raised a brow, noting Iori was there and wearing his field armor again for some reason. Daisuke still had _his_ on, but that was because they had wrapped up their latest training session less than an hour before and it was easier to just leave it on. _His_ was actually pretty comfortable, plus it looked cool.

He figured out what was going on when he saw Iori draw his sword and present it to someone he didn't recognize... an older man who carried a wooden sword of his own. Daisuke had never met Iori's grandfather before, but he knew enough to recognize him, if only from the fact that he was the boy's sensei.

Chikara picked up the blade with the trained hands of a swordmaster, carefully shifting it around several ways to test its weight. Left, right, back, forward... not bad. He shifted into a combat stance, held the blade forward and made several practice swings through the air, freezing as he completed the last one. Finally, he drew the blade back and turned to Iori, taking the scabbard and sheathing the blade before handing it back to his grandson.

"Acceptable. The weight balance needs to be improved slightly, and I would like to test the sharpness of the blade for myself, but for now it will do."

Iori nodded, returning the blade to the rack that he had up on the wall. Daisuke said nothing, just continued to watch, actually a little curious to see the interaction between these two. It seemed to be like something out of the history books... but somehow, between the two of them, it didn't feel unnatural at all.

"You ever think about learning to use a sword?"

Daisuke blinked and glanced over to Veemon who was beside him as always, watching everything. He was, like all the digimon, a peculiar case. Daisuke noted some time ago that most of their partners rarely spoke in the company of the larger group, and he understood why... this was the human world. The fear of digimon was very real, even among the ranks of the Hunters, and so the children's partners had to be careful how much they said around others. They had no problems speaking their minds in private, but in the larger group... well, it was often just easier to let the experts discuss everything amongst themselves.

"Not really... a gun, maybe, but not a sword. Not that useful, especially now."

"Yeah, but it's good discipline. I mean, just look at Iori during training. You really should think about learning it."

He had a point... Iori took to Hikari's new combat training better than any of the others. It was just as tedious for him as for everyone else but he was already used to that sort of daily training routine. For him it just doing something he was already familiar with, simply in a different way.

As for saying he should learn to use a sword, that was all Veemon. He liked to learn and experience new things, and he often advised Daisuke along that same direction. That was simply the kind of person he was. He did that with food after he first arrived in the human world, he did that with technology during the early waiting periods, and he likely would have done that with sports and other such things if they actually had time to stop and play anything like that.

Still... Daisuke did have a certain level of discipline, but it was of a very different kind. He lived by his mission, even more so now that he was digidestined. He wanted to protect humanity no matter what, and he was learning how... the problem was he was doing all the learning here while the Kaiser was active in the digital world. He'd have no problem training every day if there was nobody to fight, but knowing the Kaiser was still out there, working on who knows what... it bothered him.

"Maybe. Maybe after we beat the Kaiser. Right now I just don't have time."

"Yeah right. You're just saying that. You'll forget about it later."

Veemon shrugged and headed back into the lounge to grab some food from the fridge. Sighing, Daisuke stepped forward and pulled the door closed behind him.

"Hey!"

He ignored Veemon's shout from the other side. The digimon was short enough that he would have a little trouble trying to get the door open again, so it would give Daisuke a momentary freedom from his pestering. He was getting a little tired of being the butt of everyone's jokes lately...

He then wandered to Koushiro's corner, glancing at a few of the side terminals to look over some of the recent reports. As usual, the geeks were working on their individual pet projects, but Koushiro made certain to keep a couple screens up with info on other recent events, just so people could check them at a glance if necessary.

So far, it seemed that the network security was perfect. No spies, no holes in the system... nothing the Kaiser could exploit. If the enemy was tracking them in the digital world, they had to be doing it some other way. Obviously the Kaiser still had a few more tricks up their sleeve that the team didn't know about yet...

Hmm... what about the spires? Maybe they were some kind of radar system.

While Daisuke stood pondering those questions, Iori concluded his formal business with his sensei. He'd written down everything that the man had advised on how to improve on his sword and armor, to be given to Miyako later on. Now there wasn't much else to do except chance back to his normal clothes and head home. Work at the Hunter base – _his_ work, at least – was done for the day.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP-BEEP.

Iori glanced up toward Koushiro, noting the odd sound that was coming from... wait, that wasn't his terminal... nor any of the ones near him. Not the techies' computers with the vacant seats either. Where was that coming from?

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

Armadillomon caught the source before Iori did and headed over to it. It was coming from the... platform? That was the gate terminal... they didn't use it for anything but gate jumping. Why was _that_ beeping?

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

The trio went over to inspect the computer to see what was up, though Chikara understandably stayed a step behind just in case something unexpected came through without warning. He wasn't foolish enough to think he could stand up to a digimon, sword master or no.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

When Iori looked at the screen, all he saw was dots. Periods across the bottom of the screen; a new one for each time it beeped... there were spaces to divide them, but there was no pattern he could clearly recognize. It didn't seem to mean anything, it was just lines of dots, each one longer than the last-

Wait, nevermind. They just started over again. One beep, one beep, two beeps, three beeps...

"What's that?"

Veemon had finally gotten out of the lounge and moved over to join the group, noticing the conspicuous circle they were forming around the terminal. Hearing his partner's voice, Daisuke headed over as well, curious as to what was going on.

"It seems you're receiving a signal."

Chikara stated simply. He recognized this kind of signal from the old days of radio and the like, but he didn't understood how all this new technology worked, so he wasn't going to presume more than that.

"A signal from _who_? And what's it even supposed to mean? It's just a bunch of random beeps..."

Daisuke glanced around the front and back of the console, wondering if maybe this was just a hardware screw up or something. None of the other terminals had done this, even when they were receiving messages from the digital world.

"It's not random. It keeps getting longer, then it resets to the beginning again."

Iori countered, pointing out the dots on the screen. They came in sets, with spaces between them, and it seemed to be repeating a certain sequence over and over. However, he still had no idea what that sequence _was_...

"...Fibonacci."

Chikara muttered, his eyes locked firmly on the screen, watching the dots as they reset once again and began their third cycle through. Both Iori and Daisuke gave him odd looks, clearly not knowing the reference. Personally, he was no expert on math either, but he recognized _this_ much, at least...

"That's the Fibonacci sequence. One, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen... Izumi!"

Koushiro recoiled slightly and turned to look back. It was the first time that the elderly man had ever even addressed Koushiro, so the boy certainly wasn't expecting it. Add to that the fact that he had been totally immersed in his work and he was doubly caught off-guard, particularly by the intensity in the man's voice. Wasn't hard to tell that he was a retired police officer...

Fortunately, seeing the whole group standing there by the terminal alerted him to the fact that something was wrong. Standing, he took several steps toward them until his ears caught the beeping. Then he paused, simply listening as it started to cycle through again. Two, three, five, eight...

Suddenly, he ran back to his computer, switching over to check the status of the gate terminal. The network hadn't picked up the signal because it was so small... it was being sent in single bits and none of it was unique to the digital world. No living data, just a simple code, repeated again and again. However, that had an added benefit to it as well...

"Clever. They managed to bypass the interference by sending a signal so small that it slipped right through."

"Where's it coming from?"

All Daisuke knew was that it wasn't random, and that meant somebody was sending it on purpose... someone from the digital world, he assumed. Who else would send a signal specifically to _that_ terminal?

"Digital world, a minor sector... we've scouted there before. Nothing important there that I know of..."

"Can you send a signal back?"

A few more confused glances went Chikara's way, but nobody thought to question him. He was a man who wasted no words in times like this, so he wouldn't have been speaking if it wasn't important.

"I'm not sure... I can't send _much_. I think it's coming from a gate terminal. Those weren't designed to communicate with."

"Send back a signal just like theirs. Twenty-one beeps."

Koushiro paused a moment as it clicked in his brain. Ah... of course. If someone was there to receive their reply, then they'd know the children got the signal, whatever it was for...

"What are you doing, dagyaa?"

Chikara glanced down to Iori and his partner, his gaze more hard and professional than the boy had ever known. Then again, he hadn't known his grandfather back when he was an officer. It was rare that he ever had to get so serious as this anymore, even during training... then again, training was just that. Lives were never at risk. He couldn't necessarily say the same here...

"Continuing the sequence."

He motioned for everyone to step back from the platform, just in case. After a few seconds Koushiro informed them that he was sending the reply. The beeps from the computer resumed to the end of its current cycle, then... stopped.

They waited... at first it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but after about fifteen seconds the beeps resumed, only this time in a different pattern. Iori and Daisuke listened for a moment, but once again they couldn't figure out what it meant.

"Three, one, one, one, three... what's that mean? More math stuff?"

Daisuke groaned. He hated this... he didn't sign up to fight the Kaiser with _math_. Better just to go there in person and _ask_. Hell... that's what he was sorely tempted to do right then.

"That's not math. It's Morse Code. S-O-S."

There was a silence that hung over the room a moment. Though they hadn't been able to recognize the previous codes, Daisuke and Iori at least understood what _that_ meant... alert. There was danger. Koushiro recognized it as well, and double-checked the map, realizing something that he hadn't noticed before... something so obvious that it should have been the _first_ thing he noticed.

"...that sector is right on the edge of the Kaiser's territory."

"_Where is everyone?!_ Hikari, Miyako, Taichi!"

Daisuke grabbed his digivice and ran over to Koushiro's terminal, double-checking the map with his own eyes just to be certain. Yes... it was there. An area on the edge of the Kaiser's territory, sending them an emergency signal? There was no studying or research crap involved here. No big secret as to what was happening. The Kaiser's silence was over... the enemy was going on the offensive.

"Miyako's at home, she's working more on refining her armor. Since she wasn't here for training, Sora didn't even come in today, and Hikari left with Taichi earlier, right after training ended. I don't know where they went."

"Are they still in the base?"

"No."

It seemed odd for _Iori_ to answer when he wasn't standing at any of the terminals to check, but he didn't _need_ to check. The very fact that the enemy was moving proven that in and of itself...

"If they were... the Kaiser wouldn't be attacking now."

Daisuke immediately understood the implication he was making. Reports be damned... the enemy knew the exact state of their forces. Somehow, they were in the Hunter network and they knew that the other digidestined had left the base. Only two left, one with a slightly injured arm and both being ground-based fighters. This was the worst position for the children to be in...

"We don't have time to get everyone here..."

Veemon muttered and Daisuke clenched his digivice in his fist. Damn the Kaiser...! This was what the waiting was all about... stall until they got lax, left themselves open, got distracted... however it happened, it equaled the same thing. They couldn't fight back. They didn't have the manpower.

"If we go in now, we're dead."

Daisuke muttered, hating himself for even saying it. He wasn't a fool... he knew what a suicide mission looked like and this was obviously one. The enemy made damn sure of that... _somehow_.

"But if we don't-"

Iori muttered, though his words were cut off by the sound of rattling metal behind him. He turned to see his grandfather grabbing his sword from the mount on the wall and swiftly carrying it back to him. When he held out the sword for Iori to take, the boy turned to face his fellow chosen child, silently inquiring about his own feelings, though both of them knew he didn't need to... after what risks Daisuke had already taken before, it was clear where he stood.

Nobility before reason, and he wasn't ashamed to admit it. Suicide mission? Sure... but like Taichi, he could live with that. He wasn't sure he _could_ live with knowing he left those digimon to be enslaved by the Kaiser while he stood back and did nothing. To hell with the risk... if he had any choice, he was going, no question.

The boy glanced down next, making sure his partner was on board as well. Oddly, Armadillomon was the only one present who didn't seem to share the dire mood of the rest of the group.

"I trust you, Iori. Whatever you decide, I'll follow, dagyaa."

Some considered Armadillomon a bit simple compared to some of the other digimon... and maybe he was? A simple mon with simple tastes and simpler feelings. He wasn't the strongest or the smartest...he wasn't the most clever by far, but so what? It wasn't his job to be. His job was to protect Iori, his pleasure was to help the rest of the team...

Of course, that didn't make him a fool either, but what was the point of trying to out-think the rest of the team with the way things were? Let the geeks do the smart-people stuff. He was attentive, and for now that was enough. The day might eventually come where he would be called to help make a decision, and if it did he would rise to the occasion, but for now? For now he was simply playing his role...

Though, in a way, he _had_ been called on to make a decision, and he had done so, giving his partner the confidence he needed to move forward.

Iori gave a firm nod and looked back up to his grandfather. That was what Armadillomon preferred. He didn't want to show off or look good, he wanted to see everyone _else_ look good, especially Iori. Give them a chance to show their best side and offer them the support they needed to do it.

Iori didn't really understand the logic of his partner's mind, but he understood all he needed to. His partner was following him and Veemon was following Daisuke. This was still insanely dangerous, but... they could do this. They _had_ to do this. There was nobody else there who could.

Iori took the sword and strapped it on. Fortunate that they were already suited up, for they had no time for delays. Looking up to Daisuke, his expression made it clear that he was waiting for instruction. Chikara's early advice hadn't been forgotten. Iori was no leader... not yet, certainly, so if someone was going to lead it had to be Daisuke. The boy was clearly the more ambitious between the two, so it was time to make something of that ambition... time to be a leader.

Daisuke nodded and rushed over to the terminal to grab a pair of comm units, taking one back to Iori before quickly donning his own.

"Okay! Koushiro, call everyone and get them back here! We're going on ahead – we'll try to blunt the attack as much as possible! Send everyone else as soon as they arrive!"

He shouted as he finished putting his gear on. Then, without another moment or thought, they deployed to the digital world... having no clue who or what they would be encountering on the other side until they arrived.

* * *

After a dozen or so times heading to the digital world expecting an ambush that never came, Daisuke was almost convinced that this occasion would be just the same. A false alarm, or at least a situation that wasn't nearly as dire as they expected...

Holy shit was he wrong.

They weren't jumping into a combat zone... they were jumping into hell. They were greeted upon arrival by a a cacophony of screams accompanied by a massive explosion a few dozen yards away, at the edge of what appeared to be a large village. They could see the fight – if it could be called that – clearly enough, and it was as one-sided as anything could ever be.

At least two hundred digimon were attacking, swarming the village, though they weren't directly attacking the natives. They were simply driving them out... out into the open, and it wasn't any wonder why. Behind the army, dozens of free-floating rings hovered in the air, moving with the rest of the Kaiser's army, a few launching out from the mass to capture digimon whenever they become exposed.

Daisuke froze for a moment at seeing the mass of enemies, remembering... remembering...

A year ago. Myotismon. The swarm, the final sweep... the horror of war, right there on his own doorstep. Barriers falling, Hunters being driven back by a massive tide of enemies, people getting killed and... wounded. Crippled.

Jun.

Daisuke's fist and teeth both clenched once again as that moment of fear turned to anger.

_JUN!_

"DIGIVOLVE!"

Veemon and Armadillomon shifted together as one and ran toward the village with their partners right behind them.

"There's no time to plan!"

Daisuke shouted instinctively. He knew going in without a plan was a terrible idea, but they had no other choice. He had to make sure Iori was prepared for it... the worst thing that could happen in the midst of the chaos would be for him to hesitate.

"Lead, Daisuke! We'll follow your orders!"

If Daisuke was in any sort of right mind, he might have felt flattered that Iori trusted him so completely, but in that moment his mixed rage and survival instinct blanked out any such feelings. His only thoughts were on the battle. A thousand things going wrong, and he had to figure out what to prioritize... no time to try to be heroic. They had to _win_.

"Flamedramon, the rings! Digmon, ground sweep! Iori, with me!"

With him? So the children were doing something different than their partners, then? Well... okay, Iori wasn't going to argue, though he was suddenly very glad that he had a sword at his side.

He was even more confused when Daisuke turned to charge the fleeing digimon, trying to move around to... cut them off? What the heck was he doing?

"_**STOP!**_"

Even with the intensity in his voice, Daisuke only barely managed to catch the attention of the digimon. They were in chaos... panic. They didn't much care what anybody said or did, they just wanted to get _out_. However, Daisuke holding up his digivice caught their attention long enough for them to actually realize that... well, he was _human_. He and Iori both. Humans in the digital world... they were digidestined.

"You can't outrun the Kaiser! You have to FIGHT! _We_ have to fight together! All of you, get behind me! _You_, attack those rings!"

Daisuke motioned to all of the digimon that appeared to have any sort of flying abilities. They were mostly small creatures, of course... children, with only a couple adults at most. Maybe a few adult level, but nothing that could put up a serious fight against the enemy army. However, the rings weren't especially tough... a single good hit was enough to eliminate one. As long as they had the armored digimon protecting them from the swarm, they might be able to hold off those rings.

It was still a gamble, though... Daisuke knew they wouldn't be able to stop the rings forever, so he was hoping that the enemy didn't have any in reserve. Based on what he saw, the number appeared small enough that they could take most of them down before the digimon from the villatge got tired or overwhelmed... but against the Kaiser one never knew quite what to expect.

Fortunately, the enemy's tactics hadn't adjusted for the children's presence yet. They were still only launching a couple rings at a time, and none of them got past Flamedramon's rain of fire.

Iori went to reorganizing the digimon line, calling everyone to their proper positions. The toughest digimon in front, weaker ones in back to attack from a distance, and all the aerial ones above and behind to cover the rest of the group. So far it was only the rings, but he wasn't going to take a chance and assume that the enemy army wasn't going to come out of the village and chase after them, especially once they realized what was happening.

"Flamedramon! Help Digmon! Hit the army!"

Their miniature army was set up... hopefully they could stop the rings on their own. Their partners had to prioritize the enemy attackers now. There were too damn many to just leave them until all the rings were gone. They had to strike first and knock off as many as possible before the Kaiser turned the full force on the children.

In the chaos that followed, a couple dozen digimon had their rings blasted off and, fortunately, _most_ of them came around to join the little makeshift army. Their local resistance, as it were. Then the enemies drew back, into the limits of the village and behind the buildings to cover themselves from any sort of attack.

The enemy was reacting... shit. The battle was about to shift, and not for the better. Daisuke ran forward until the partner digimon could hear calling. Time to change tactics...

"Team, back! Iori, get the villagers out of here!"

One command to the digimon ahead, the other through the intercom to the boy behind. As the partners ran back toward him, Daisuke noticed the enemy lines shifting, as if they were preparing for something. Shit! Out of time... no way to run fast enough.

"Digmon, help Iori! Flamedramon...!"

Before the words even came out of his mouth, his partner knew what he wanted. Idiots, both of them. They'd get chewed all the hell out for this if they made it back home, but there was no other choice. They needed time for the villagers to be able to flee and hide in the woods or otherwise find means to get away. If the enemy swarmed them first, they were dead. He had to keep the Kaiser's eyes on something else... on _them_.

"Time to start a-"

Diasuke muttered to himself almost idly, a sort of instinctive reaction to what was coming. He tended to rattle off random phrases like that when he was mentally prepping for something big... like _charging to his death_. However, as he realized what he was saying he suddenly stopped.

Time... to start a fire?

"Hit the village!"

For the first time, Flamedramon gave his partner a look that indicated that he was crazy, but then... they both already knew _that_. Still, hitting the village? Was he actually saying what it sounded like he was?

"Set the buildings on fire! Burn it all to the ground!"

Their allies had all fled. The village was lost either way... but they needed a distraction, and the enemy was hiding in the village and using the buildings as shields. Well, that worked both ways. A shield of fire... Daisuke couldn't try to get into the village, but he could at least make it hell for the enemies to get _out_.

Meanwhile, Iori noticed the fact that Daisuke and Flamedramon weren't coming back with Digmon... as if it was possible _not_ to. Iori knew what he had to do then. That idiot was going to get himself killed without backup. He had a responsibility to the villagers too, of course... but he also understood Daisuke's logic at some instinctive level. Distract the enemy... that was their best chance to get out.

"Everyone, stay close together and head for the trees. Hide as much as you can and just _get away_. We'll keep the Kaiser busy until you're safe..."

Gesturing to Digmon, the digimon nodded and reached down, pulling Iori up onto his back before turning around yet again to head back toward the village for what might possibly be the final time...

Back at the village, flaming darts struck most every building in sight, igniting the edge of the village into a wall of fire that sent the enemies into chaos, forcing a good number of them back further in order to escape the flames.

The rest charged forward, emerging from the growing inferno to charge Flamedramon. Fortunately, they were all slightly disoriented from the fire... the searing heat, the roaring sound, the bright light and the smoke blocking their view... on the other hand, Flamedramon was literally _made_ for this kind of battlefield.

Their rings were shot off with ease and more darts were fired, igniting the few buildings that stood unscathed at the edge of the village. No more enemies emerged from the flames on the ground, but apparently the Kaiser had gotten a bit annoyed at Daisuke's tactics and decided to take the hard approach to counterattacking. Out from the billowing smoke above emerged several dozen fliers – large, ravenous birds with twisted talons and beaks, indicating that they were likely taken from some of the less pleasant parts of the digital world... and the Kaiser had sent them here to serve as part of the main offensive force. Oh _joy_...

Flamedramon jumped back and prepared to unleash a array of flaming darts to start knocking them down, but before he could the swarm was scattered by Digmon's drills smashing into the center of the group, obliterating a half-dozen rings and forcing the rest to break off and regroup.

"Iori! What the hell are you doing?!"

Daisuke skipped surprise and went straight to anger. No time to sit and gawk at a time like this... but Iori had abandoned the fleeing digimon and left them vulnerable. What would happen if they got caught by the rings?

"Same as you!"

Daisuke growled under his breath. He couldn't argue with that... he really _did_ need the backup, and maybe... just maybe they could distract the enemy enough that they wouldn't care to catch the rest of fleeing digimon?

Sure. That was as good a plan as any...

The children spent a good minute trying to hold their ground and knock down the fliers as much as possible, but there wasn't much they could do from there. They managed to hit one or two, but the enemies were flying war too high, and several of them were using the smoke for cover, making it even harder to hit them. They weren't attacking, though... why weren't they...

"They're stalling us!"

Iori shouted and Daisuke nodded. He was right... but why? The enemy was _attacking_. Why would _they_ want to stall? He glanced back toward the fleeing refugees behind them. No rings in pursuit... what the hell was the enemy after?

"Iori, hold the line!"

The younger boy blinked. Hold the... what? What was Daisuke-

Oh. Oooohh no... you idiot. You complete _idiot_!

Iori had no time to stop Daisuke and Flamedramon from charging into the village, right down the center road, the only place where the flames were far enough away that the boy didn't get baked in an instant.

Oddly, most of the enemy fliers seemed to divert from attacking Iori and went after Daisuke... even though he was going into the village? What the heck? The enemy's _whole army_ was there! Did they really need backup?

"_BURN IT ALL!_"

Iori barely caught the sound of Daisuke's voice over the flames and for the a moment he considered... well, maybe _so_. Against someone as crazy as Daisuke, _anyone_ would want backup.

Flamedramon charged ahead, jumping onto nearby rooftops in order to propel himself even higher, launching fireballs from his airborne position to ignore any structures within range. Any enemies that were hiding between the buildings were forced out into the open or simply away. Those that came forward had their rings shot off in an instant, and the rest... well, they weren't a problem with a giant wall of fire between them and Daisuke.

Then the pair went deeper, right toward the heart of the village, to the center square where Daisuke expected to find the most dense concentration of enemies. However, oddly... there was no such thing there. The enemies had all withdrawn, forming a wall further back, and instead there was...

Okay, what the _hell_ was that?

In the center of the square, lying on the ground, was a small object of some sort, though Daisuke couldn't see it clearly. All he could see was that it was of some kind of standard geometric shape. Symmetrical, sharp edges... but he couldn't tell any more than that for the simple fact that the thing was glowing too brightly, and it was only getting brighter by the second.

There was also a sound. An odd, static-like noise that seemed to be coming from the object, or... not. It got louder as Daisuke stepped closer, but it didn't seem like it was actually coming _from_ the object. Rather, it was coming from all around him. All around, yet it got louder as he got closer? How did that make any sense? What, was the glowing thing attracting it like-

Waaaaaait a minute... he _knew_ that sound. That was Koushiro's noise. The thing from the briefing. The static noise... the... the _signal_.

The SIGNAL! Of course the object on the ground wasn't making it – it was _receiving_ it! It was also growing... brighter, and slightly larger as well. The Kaiser was transmitting the signal to this thing in order to... what, activate it? What the hell _was_ this thing, anyway?

"Daisuke!"

Flamedramon caught the boy's attention and called it upward, pointing back toward the center of the enemy line. In the midst of all the enemies was a large, winged creature that neither of them recognized. Some kind of gray- well, okay, _every_ one of the enemies was gray, so that didn't mean much... but it was a large, wicked looking, dragon-like creature with four eyes and as many wings. However, for how freaky that thing was to look at, it wasn't what had caught Flamedramon's attention.

There was something on its head. No... not something. Some_one_. A humanoid creature, wrapped in a cowl and cape, donning a suit of armor, complete with a mask. Both the armor and cape were silver with black trim, which advertised as clear as anything that it was connected to the Kaiser. Possibly some kind of general?

From the way that the armor covered its entire body, Daisuke initially assumed that it was some kind of human-like digimon, similar to Andromon or Wizardmon. Though what was odd was the fact that it was silver, not gray, and there was no visible ring on it. A willing servant of the Kaiser, or... could that have been the Kaiser itself?

Then he caught it... the thing that Flamedramon had noticed before calling his attention up to the enemy. It was just a tiny thing at the edge of the figure, held firmly in its hand. It was white, which made it difficult to see initially due to all the silver that tended to catch Daisuke's eye. However, once he got a good, long look at it, he realized what it was.

The figure seemed to recognize that he noticed it as well and shifted its... shifted _his_ hand slightly to actually give Daisuke a better view. The shape, the faint glow in the center... that was all the confirmation he needed. That was...

"Oh... my... god."

"Daisuke, what's going on?"

Iori shouted over the comm and Daisuke didn't reply. He simply stared, struggling to believe that what he was seeing was actually real.

Back at the edge of the village, Iori noted the fliers withdrawing... into the village? Were they going after Daisuke? Dammit!

"Daisuke! What-"

"Iori, withdraw."

At first the boy couldn't believe his ears, first because of the words said and also because of the tone that carried them. He sounded... shaken. Worried. Even outright scared.

"Wh... what?"

"I said _WITHDRAW!_ Get out of here as fast as you can! Go to the terminal and get back to the Hunter base, _NOW!_"

Daisuke was... ordering a withdrawal? He had committed this far to the fight and now he was _running away_? Was that even _possible_? Daisuke was the most stubborn and headstrong member in their whole team. Worse than Miyako, Taichi... worse than _anyone_, and he was running scared now?

It took all of Iori's courage not to run fleeing the instant that realization hit. One thing kept him there though... he remembered the last time he'd gone on ahead of someone and what happened. Not again. He wasn't leaving alone.

"I'm not leaving without-"

He never had time to finished that sentence before Daisuke and Flamedramon burst through the wall of smoke, running at full speed away, toward the gate terminal. Without a command, Digmon reached down to grab Iori and hoist him up, running with the others from whatever the hell was behind them... he made surprisingly good speed too, despite being one of the slowest members of the team. Then again, for all he knew the entire enemy army was about to come down on their heads like the wrath of hell, so he was _damn well_ gonna run as fast as his legs could take him...

As they reached the terminal, Digmon stopped abruptly to look back, having noted something odd... light reflecting off the trees ahead, but nothing that looked like either the color or angle of natural sunlight.

"Daisuke!"

Iori called the older boy's attention back, pointing back to the center of the village. Beyond the billowing smoke, something was showing through... an immense light that seemed to be covering the entire village. At first, Iori was preparing to jump through the terminal and back to the human world. For all he knew that was a giant bomb or something... but the way that Daisuke calmed as he faced it changed Iori's mind. What was going on?

Then a second later he saw it. As the growing light hit the peak of its brightness it seemed to warp, exploding outward for a moment only to implode a second later, drawing all that energy back in to the center of the village. The pressure of the shifting energy extinguished some of the flames and spread the smoke to further obscure their view, but then it all settled they could see clearly enough what was left in its wake.

A spire. A tower of silver, now standing dead-center in the middle of the burning village. Daisuke understood now... the spires were somehow linked to that same signal, like the rings. Like digimon. They were... alive, in a way. They weren't built, they were _grown_. He still didn't understand what they were actually for, but that was a question for another day. He had much more important news to report back to base. The face of the war had suddenly changed.

"Let's go."

Daisuke turned to the terminal and gave the signal. Iori didn't question it... there was obviously more than the spire that had scared Daisuke. So whatever was happening, he knew he'd find out in due time along with everyone else on the team...

* * *

Daisuke's silence after his return was even more unnerving than his words before. Daisuke was always so confident, loud... boisterous, even. Now he was dead quiet. All he did was tell Koushiro to call all the digidestined to the base, then he headed to the lounge. He was still there half an hour later once everyone had arrived. There had been some unexpected delays... unexpected to the team, at least. No doubt the Kaiser had known enough to predict them...

"Daisuke."

Taichi stood at the door to the lounge, looking in on Daisuke and Veemon who both sat there silently on one of the couches. Veemon's expression was pretty well neutral, though some concern was clearly visible on his face. Daisuke was the more serious case, though... he was hunched over, hands up to cover his entire face. He still wore his armor and smelled smelled faintly of smoke from the fire... while Iori changed back to his civilian clothes almost immediately, Daisuke didn't seem to care to.

Slowly, he raised his face and looked across to Taichi. When he did, the leader saw something he'd never seen before on that boy's face... dread. Not fear, not worry over what was going to happen, but the cold, somber knowledge that the future held something terrible... it wasn't unlike the first time the gen-one children had learned that Etemon was invading the human world. Knowing their friends and family were in danger... knowing that they'd have to fight in the streets, and it was not only possible but entirely likely that innocents would get caught in the middle of it all...

Daisuke stood and Veemon followed, both completely silent as they stepped out past Taichi and the others and walked to the briefing table. The boy unconsciously noticed the people around... just about everyone was there, save a few Hunter people. No Ryo or Masaharu... no Kaiba either, but that was to be expected. He rarely showed his face around there. All the rest though, both gen one and two, Momoe, Ken, Chikara... everyone was there, and everyone was waiting for him.

"Daisuke, what _happened_?"

Yamato spoke. He didn't respond. Daisuke kept walking, stopping at the head of the table before slowly turning, looking to find Iori among the group. As it turned out, he and his partner had come up right beside him.

"I told them everything I know about the mission."

He muttered and took a seat. Daisuke nodded, eyes downcast toward the table. Nothing else to say about that, then... all that was left was part he didn't know... the thing _nobody_ knew yet.

Daisuke was barely sure he was ready to even say it... still, he cleared his throat and took hold of the edge of the table to steady himself. Start small... that's what Jun had told him once about being more diplomatic. Don't say everything at once. That's like hitting someone with a brick... try to ease into it.

"The Kaiser was there... leading the attack. I saw him with my own eyes."

The room was already tense from the unusual silence, but it suddenly grew. The Kaiser... up until now just a faceless name that they knew nothing about. Now one of them had seen it with his own eyes... and he was scared. Yeah, that was enough to worry the rest of them. But first...

"You're _sure_ it was the Kaiser?"

Yamato wasn't trying to question Daisuke's intelligence, but he had to make certain. It was possible they were being tricked somehow... it wouldn't be the first time.

"...yeah, I'm sure. There was no ring on him... he was wearing silver armor with a mask..."

"Could it have been some other digimon working _with_ the-"

"...and he had a digivice."

Jou's words fell totally silent, along with everyone else in the room. For several seconds there was nothing. No words, no movements... forget a pin, right then you could have heard a _feather_ drop.

"Say that again."

Hikari took several steps forward, stopping beside Daisuke opposite Iori. Gatomon was, as always, curled up on her shoulder, but her claws were visibly bared, the only sign of the tension she was feeling...

Daisuke finally raised his eyes, and they were colder than they'd ever been. There was no child there... no reckless trainee ready to charge blindly into battle. Something in him had changed the moment he laid eyes on that device...

"The Kaiser was holding a digivice in his hand. One of _these_."

He reached down to grab his own and hold it up to clarify, just so that nobody would have to ask later. Gen-two, the same as all of the new children...

"He pointed it at me to let me see it. The screen was glowing – it was _active_. The Digimon Kaiser. Is. Human."

Human... their number one enemy in this war, and the one he had understood from the first moment to be who they would have to kill in order to stop the fighting... until that day he had thought it would be much the same as Myotismon or Etemon.

Daisuke didn't hate digimon. He didn't see them as less than human like some people did. He understood that digimon were _people_, just like any human, but something about them... something about the thought of destroying an evil digimon made it easier. Maybe it was what they'd done in the war... maybe it was that, knowing all about that attribute stuff, he felt they really were evil to the core and beyond redemption. Maybe it really _was_ simply the fact that they weren't human like he was, so it didn't feel as damning.

But that didn't matter either way. It wasn't a digimon they were fighting, and it wasn't a digimon they might well be forced to kill at the end of the war. It was a human... a child, just like them. A child with a digivice.

A digidestined.

The silence resumed. It seemed that, for a time, nobody knew what to say at all. The leaders had no directions, the geeks had no suggestions. The revelation had stunned everyone and changed their entire view of the war, and now... just what the hell were they supposed to do?

"...Koushiro, what's the protocol for declaring a digital emergency?"

Such an emergency had already been declared, but due to some damn political nonsense the Hunters had reduced the threat level. They hadn't really known what they were up against before, but with this knowledge there was now no doubt that the enemy could get into the human world if they... if _he_ wanted. They had to increase the threat level. They had to make everyone aware of what was happening...

"Any digidestined can declare an emergency or increase a lower level emergency up to level four, if they feel it's necessary. Going higher usually requires approval from Hunter command, although..."

"Although _what_?"

Koushiro paused, glancing around the room to the face of every destined child present. He wasn't an expert on politics, but being as experienced as he was with computers he knew how to take advantage of certain... rule systems.

"Due to certain protocols... it's possible for us to declare a level three emergency, but it would require the unanimous approval of all active digidestined."

"All in favor?"

Hikari asked without missing a beat, raising her hand, to be followed immediately by Taichi and Yamato, then most of the other members as well. Koushiro hesitated for a few seconds, as did Jou, but both of them eventually followed suit as well. Only one remained who didn't follow the others... and based on his expression he clearly had no intention of doing so.

"Iori?"

Chikara was... curious. Not necessarily surprised, as he could see several potential reasons why he wouldn't go along with the suggestion. The fact that it was so rushed and not sufficiently thought through was a big one, along with others... but he was specifically interested to know what his grandson's reasons were.

Hikari lowered her hand, turning toward the boy with confusion. He was actually one of the _last_ people who expected not to go along with this... he was one who tended to play things safe, and getting the Hunters alerted to what was going on to get backup seemed like the safest option they had.

"Hikari... are you actually ready to tell the whole world about this?"

"What? Tell them about _wh_-"

"We just found out that the Digimon Kaiser, the one who's taking over the digital world and enslaving digimon, is actually a human. Not just a human, a _digidestined_, like all of us."

"Yes, and they need to know-"

"What do you really think they're going to _say_ to that? Right now, _we're_ the only thing connected to the digital world that everyone isn't scared of, and people are _still_ scared of all of our partners just because they're digimon. What will happen if we tell them that one of us is now our _enemy_?"

Hikari went silent, and with that several hands dropped, starting with Yamato and... Daisuke, of all people. After them, the others started falling, one by one until they were all down again.

"People _do_ need to know... but only people we can _trust_. Masaharu and Kaiba and Ryo... our families... but not the whole world. Not yet. I'm not ready to tell everyone about this until we can tell them all what we're actually fighting for. What the Kaiser's really after, and what we're trying to stop."

Hikari slowly nodded. He had a point... one that she hadn't initially realized in her rush to up the emergency level and alert the world to the crisis. The fact that the Kaiser was human meant his goals might be completely different then they imagined... hell, for all they knew, the human world might _not_ be in danger. How did they know he wasn't simply retaliating for what happened in the war? Granted, this would be a _horrendously_ stupid way to go about it, but... it was still possible.

"I'm calling my dad and Ryo. I'll report this to them personally. Taichi, you coming?"

Yamato motioned to his semi-brother and rival who nodded and turned to the exit along with him. It was a somewhat rushed reaction, but in this case everyone could understand it. Better to have something to do than just sit and ponder the implications of what it meant to be fighting a fellow digidestined...

"I'll start collecting information that could help us work out the identity of the Kaiser. I'll set up a secure file in the SDZ records for everyone to review for the future. I'm not sure what kind of legwork we'll have to do in this world to track him down..."

Koushiro headed back to his terminal, calling for Mimi to follow him. She understood how people thought better than any of the other gen-one children, and figuring out who was the Kaiser was more than just technical work. Unless he left a trace somewhere in the network – and based on all they had seen so far, he hadn't – they'd need to track him down some other way.

They needed a system. First, a way to identify potential targets, and then a way to start eliminating them as possibilities. Given her knowledge of people, Mimi was the best to help set the parameters for that kind of system. If nothing else, her non-linear thinking would help him spot any problems in his work that he might overlook.

The first problem was even figuring out _where_ to look. It was completely irrational to assume that grabbing a block of records from the civilian database and filtering through it in search of someone with a history that screamed DIGIMON KAISER would do them any good. The first step to beginning their search was in figuring out what kind of search they were even going to be _doing_...

While they started on that, the rest of the team all found tasks to do in the meantime as well... things to keep them occupied while their leaders reported to Masaharu about what they learned. Busy work, mostly... something to burn time with. They wouldn't need to do it for long. They all knew that soon enough they'd likely be called in for another briefing by Masaharu, and then... then they'd have to start exploring the new angle of this war.

They had to take the fight to the human world. They had to start the hunt for the Digimon Kaiser...


End file.
